Posts

You’re Ruining Your Site on Mobile

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I’ve written previously about my love of reading my RSS feed on my phone before I go to sleep every night. It’s the perfect way for me to end my day.

However, there is one bad trend I notice on mobile sites and it really interferes with what I want to do on the site – READ IT. Shocking, right?
So many of the sites that I click through to read I’m greeted with a giant and obnoxious email subscription box. Is that any way to greet a reader going to your site for the first time?

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4 Website Lies You Should Stop Believing

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When you’ve been building websites for as long as we have you hear a lot of lies, falsehoods, misconceptions, and other stuff that makes you do that confused dog look.

Don’t fear, though. We’re here to clear some of these things up for you. Here are 4 website lies that you really should stop listening to:

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How the HubSpot COS is like The Avengers of Marketing Automation

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I’ve made it no secret that I’m a big comic book nerd. I love super heroes and I don’t care who knows it. When I have to explain something technical or complex to people, I’ll almost always relate it to super heroes because that’s what is on my mind 86% of the time (when I’m not at work thinking of websites and inbound marketing).

I was recently trying to explain HubSpot’s COS to a not so technical friend who has a tiny bit of experience with WordPress. I kept saying a feature was like so and so, but on steroids. Like this and that, but on crack. More power! More craziness!

That conversation led me to connect the HubSpot COS with none other than –  The Avengers!

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Why You Need A Responsive Inbound Website Today (If Not Sooner!)

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I love my iPhone and iPad, and I love reading on them. One of the best parts of my day is when I sit in bed with my iPhone and go through my RSS feeds. It’s the only time of the day where I can slow down and enjoy reading blogs and news at my own pace.

I read blogs on several topics, from marketing thought leaders like HubSpot and LyntonWeb (of course!) to blogs on photography, technology, comics and so much more.

Some of these blogs have full posts in the feeds, some show only excerpts and you have to click through to read the whole post. As a reader I prefer full post feeds, but as a marketer I know that’s not always the best solution for a content creators.

It’s not that annoying to click through in my RSS reader app of choice, but what is annoying is when I’m faced with teeny-tiny-itty-bitty content to try to read. Read more

Responsive Design 101 – Everything You Need To Know

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Responsive design is the latest trend in web design and development, and for good reason.

Take a look at the graphic below.

(Graphic courtesy of OpenSignal.com)

That graphic roughly illustrates how many different screen sizes are out there on Android and iOS devices. And that doesn’t include Windows, BlackBerry or other devices.

According to StatCounter, so far in 2013 almost 14% of US users browsing the web do so on a mobile device – and amount that’s doubled since 2011, and these numbers will only continue to go up. Read more

Is Your Inbound Marketing Website Mobile Friendly?

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Have you looked at your website lately? I mean, really looked at it. How about viewing it in all major browsers? Sometimes there are minor (hopefully not major) differences in the way your site displays in Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

Before we launch any website at LyntonWeb, we go through a quality assurance phase, which includes rigorous browser testing. During our testing, we capture screenshots of multiple pages of the websites in the two most current versions of the big four desktop browsers. In addition to desktop testing, we also test for iPhone, iPad and Android device compatibility.

Have you accessed your website on a mobile device yet? Mobile traffic is growing by leaps and bounds every year. From December 2011 to December 2012 it went up nearly 140%!

Spend some time on your website using a smartphone or tablet. Do you get the same experience as using a desktop browser? How would you rate your website’s mobile experience?

Building an Effective Mobile Website

A mobile site is an optimized version of your web site for mobile devices. It’s stripped down, and allows your visitors to find content and information quickly without having to navigate a full website using their smartphones. When you have a mobile site – all mobile devices accessing your website’s URL will be directed to your mobile site. So you’ll need to consider the functionality that is important to you on your mobile site. Increasingly, mobile websites are being replaced by responsive websites.

Responsive Design

A responsive website is one that offers your website visitors the most optimal browsing experience regardless of their screen size. Take a look at HubSpot’s site in a new tab. Drag the corner of the window to make it smaller and you’ll notice that the site reconfigures itself to show you the information in the best way possible given your screen size.

A responsive site gives you the ability to build one site for your audience and their many different screen sizes.

Quick Mobile Friendly Tips

If you are unable to do a fresh redesign or build with responsive technology, here are some quick tips:

  • Content first – Make sure that your most important content is easy to access, so users don’t need to hunt for it.
  • Remove Flash from your site – Or just don’t use it. Flash has been slowly falling out of favor, and it’s time to embrace HTML 5 video techniques.
  • Large buttons – Make sure that your buttons and site navigation are easy to tap with a finger. It’s very easy to click on a specific spot on a website with a mouse, but fingers of different sizes can be clumsy.
  • Disable pop-ups – Does your site have pop up windows, or do you frequently open links in new tabs or windows?
  • Keep your site trim – Make sure that all of your images and videos are as small as possible. While some of your mobile traffic may come over WiFi, there will be a lot coming over 3G or 4G.

Start with these tips and when you are ready for broader changes to your inbound mobile website, just let us know.

This article originally appeared on LyntonWeb.