January 2

iOS and Android Website Audits Are Becoming Critical - by Adam Smith

Check your Google Analytics account for Visitors - Mobile - Mobile Devices.  Clients are seeing some crazy percentage growth there for new visits.  If your bounce rates are high and avg time on site is super low, chances are your site isn't optimized for mobile devices.  You can use this data to justify the need for mobile friendly sites.
Just to clarify a few things...There are some terms out there that can be confusing on mobile devices and web sites.  These may or may not be industry standard terms, but here are a few brief definitions:

1 - Mobile App

A mobile app is going to be an application that you download to a smart phone through the iTunes Store, or Android Market.

2 - Mobile Site

A mobile site is when there is a specifically different website that pulls up when you're on a browser on a mobile device.  You'll notice that if you visit http://www.nfl.com and see it redirect to http://m.nfl.com

3 - Mobile Friendly Full Website

A mobile friendly website is what we refer to when a site at least looks and is mostly functional on a mobile device.  You may notice this at the bottom of Mobile Sites that you can access the Full Site.  Often a browser lets you zoom in on links and content just as if you were surfing the site on your laptop but you're on your smaller mobile screen. 

Each of these three types of mobile solutions can require a different specification and purpose.  Currently, developers are working with Adaptive web design that will allow for a site to "sense" what device it's being viewed on and adjust itself accordingly.  Check back in a month or two and we'll have something like this for soundpress.com. 

In short, not everyone has to have a specific mobile site - many websites will do just fine if optimized to be a Mobile Friendly Full Website.  And building an app is an entirely different process altogether.  Pay attention to stats in your Google Analytics and you'll see what your site visitors are using so you can plan development accordingly.

-Adam Smith