Quick Hacks to Make Your Content Mobile Friendly

If you (or your management) are not willing to create a mobile-friendly Website for your customers, here are some hacks to mobilize your content quickly. (Caution: I said “hacks” because you really should invest time to do it correctly.)

• Create a URL (e.g. m.yourdomain.com) that redirects through a compressor like Google Mobilizer or Mowser.
• If your site is built with a content management system such as WordPress, you can install plug-ins like WordPress PDA (my favorite) and WordPress Mobile Edition which strip out all the formatting and leave a clean, navigable text format.
• Use a paid service such as Usablenet mobile to implement a conversion solution for you that does not require your programming resources.

Unfortunately, the first two don’t give you a good method to measure visitor traffic. But if you have a Web analytics tool in place that gives you browser, operating system and screen size information, you might be able to glean some useful data to make a business case for creating a dedicated mobile site.

Honestly, it’s better to put your energy towards executing correctly. But if you don’t have the manpower, time or management support, consider a shortcut so you have a presence before your competition gets a leg up on you.

Hope you find this useful. Please add your thoughts.
-Roland