How to Improve Your Portable Sub-Score
The more mobile devices your site is optimized for, the better positioned your brand will be to capitalize on the emerging mobile market.
What it means to be Portable
A brand's portability is determined by detecting auto redirects for the four top mobile browsers; iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile. A high Portable Sub-Score means your firm takes the mobile market seriously and doesn’t assume that everyone visiting your website is doing so from a home/work computer with a large monitor. We also look at whether your brand follows industry standards for mobile web design.
The total number of points a brand can earn for their Portable Sub-Score is 200. A high portable rating means you take the mobile market seriously and don’t assume everyone visiting your website is doing so from a mainframe computer.
Tips for improving your Portable Sub-Score
The biggest barriers to mobile Internet browsing are:
- Poorly formatted pages
- Slow page load times
- Difficult navigation
As a brand marketer, there are several strategic and tactical steps you can take to improve your Portable Sub-Score:
- Make sure your website is optimized for iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile browsers
- Consider optimizing your website for additional mobile browsers that your site visitors utilize most
- Install a mobile browser redirect onto your site and all respective landing pages
- Follow Tim Berners-Lee’s W3C’s Mobile Web Initiative standards
- Design smaller, custom interfaces for mobile devices that include critical information & actions front and center
- Make sure that all vital information is presented in columns that fit ‘within the fold’ – this is hugely important
- Avoid nested tables, pop ups, frames, image maps, & graphics for spacing
- Consider developing a mobile API so 3rd parties can build apps using your site content
- Use an mobile emulator to see how your website looks on various mobile devices
Resources
- Photoshop PSD file containing iPhone UI templates for mock-up designs, by teehan+lax
- iPhone design insights & video by Edward Tufte
- Small Surfaces blog about design for mobile technology
- Punchcut mobile design agency
- Creative-Spark mobile design agency
About Jon
Being Heardable, the Heardable Blog, is curated by Heardable co-founder and digital marketing veteran, Jon Samsel. Jon is based in Los Angeles, and Singapore.