Mobile Marketing For Dummies®

Chapter 8. Designing and Developing Mobile Internet Sites

In This Chapter

• Getting acquainted with the mobile Internet

• Settling on the purpose of your mobile site

• Securing a mobile domain name

• Designing, testing, and updating your mobile site

The rising tide of mobile device use, especially smartphones and connected devices (see Chapter 1) is the piston driving the mobile Web forward. As billions across the globe grow to rely on their mobile devices to connect and communicate, the mobile Web's importance expands exponentially.

Today, many users are wowed by mobile applications (see Chapter 9) designed to do everything from simply acting like a Zippo lighter, to recognizing songs on the radio, recommending restaurants in the immediate area, buying stuff, or conducting global banking and commerce. The current apps craze, while impressive in its sheer inventiveness, may ultimately be left behind by a richer mobile Web that provides users with the same content and functionality now found on the traditional Web (For the curious, see the sidebar titled, "The mobile Web versus apps and the role of HTML 5" at the end of this chapter for more on this topic.) To ignore or underestimate this natural progression of the mobile Web is to miss a huge marketing opportunity.

Moving forward, many first impressions between companies and consumers will be made on the mobile Web. If you don't have a mobile Web site for mobile users, your first impression could be your last. In fact, if you learn nothing else ...