Let me start off by saying that there was a time when websites were made for desktops and laptops. Hours and hours of web designing followed by weeks of debugging to make it look presentable on 1024×768 resolution on Internet Explorer. Fast forward to 2010 and the whole perception becomes null and void. We have already reached a point in time when even hand held devices are getting saturated.

While your site may look awesome on a desktop, it might not even load on a mobile phone. With increasing availability of smart phones, it has now become inevitable to build a mobile version of your site. Looking at a broader picture, people will eventually leave desktops and laptops and completely turn to hand-held devices to quench their daily internet appetite. And this will happen very very soon.

Recently Opera claimed to offer their services to 100 million users out of which 50% are mobile phone users. The Internet Telecommunication Union forecasted long ago that mobile internet users will reach over 1.7 billion by 2013. With the advent of devices like iPhone, iPad and technologies like 3G, this target seems ridiculously easy. [Some more mobile internet usage data here].

I have been using Woopra for TechExplorer’s traffic analysis for about a year now. It gives me detailed information about the visitors. A part of that information includes the screen resolution of the visitors’ devices. I have noticed that the visitors using devices with smaller screen resolutions (mostly 480×320) have constantly increased in the past 6 months. This urged me to have a separate mobile version of my site – http://m.techexplorer.in.

In this scenario, you simply can’t ignore the mobile platform while designing sites. Making a mobile version of a site is just as important for a normal site owner as it is for corporate big daddies. And to simplify your task, there are many options available. There are services like Mobify, Mofuse, MobilePress, etc. and WordPress plugins like WPhone, WordPress Mobile Pack, WPTouch to make a mobile version of your site. And the best part is, most of these services are free. Why not use them?

When you use these services, they will automatically redirect your visitors to the trimmed mobile version of your site. This will make your site load faster on their mobile devices and will eventually make them happy. Great browsing experience is one of the critical factors on mobile phones. Fancy banners and other multimedia magic is of second priority here. Also, this will make a good professional impression on your visitors.

I have always believed that visitors, essentially, need just the vital information that they are actually searching for and not the eye-candy. When Godzilla visited NYC in 1998, Dr. Nick Tatopoulos said, “Give him what he wants, and he’ll come to you.” This stands true for your visitors too. Provide them with the information that they want and they will become your loyal returning visitors.

What are your views on mobilizing your site? How much important it is to you to have a separate low-bandwidth version of your site? Do share in the comments!