Here are some tips on how to build your website in such a way as to make it useful with mobile devices.
Clean HTML Code
Be sure your website code is clean and fast loading. It’s important that the home page contain text content as opposed to consisting entirely of multimedia such as Flash. Be sure the site loads fast and is not bogged down with complicated scripts, code and media. Mobile devices are slower than your office internet connection so it takes more time to load your website.
Clear Navigation
Make sure your law firm website has an obvious and clean navigation menu. Flash navigation not only takes more time to load but is not visible on some mobile devices. You want to make sure mobile visitors can navigate easily past the home page and throughout your entire website.
Use TEXT
It’s important that your company name, address and phone number are in HTML text on every page. Mobile devices recognize addresses and phone numbers in text and give visitors the option to dial your number or map to your office on the fly. If your address and phone is an image or flash, you loose that advantage. Having to write down an address or phone number while viewing it on their phone is difficult and takes much more time. You want to make it easy for your prospects!
Limit Media & Images
The more images, flash and media you stuff in your law firm website pages, the slower they load. It can also displace the text, making the textual content more difficult to read on mobile devices. Keep your pages simple and easily readable by not cluttering it up with too many images.
Vertical vs Horizontal
Be sure your pages don’t require horizontal scrolling to view. Vertical scrolling to view your entire page is expected on a mobile device. Horizontal is awkward and can be frustrating. Again…make things simple and easy!
One way to accomplish the goal of having a cleanly coded website is by constructing the website with cascading stylesheets (CSS) rather than tables. When hiring a developer for your website, make sure they use CSS coding. A CSS website might look just fine on a mobile device by default. If the design is too complicated for mobile, CSS can allow you to “skin” the site differently for mobile devices, so mobile users see a simpler, more stripped down version of the website.
Contact Virtuoso Legal Marketing today to discuss how we can help you spread your firm’s brand via mobile devices.