If you are considering the mobile web, one of the first things you should do is visit dotomobi.dotmobi and read what Vance Hedderel, has to say on the subject. I’ve been following Vance for a few months now. Vance is clearly one of the thought leaders on the mobile web. I will list the top 10 mobile web blogs I follow in a future post. For now, its important you get your arms around a key area this is still being debated, when it comes to registering a TLD (top level domain) vs. a sub-domain website URL.
5 Reasons You Need a .Mobi Name
Search engine performance and whitelisting by network transcoders are just two of the top five reasons why you need a .mobi domain.
.mobi is emerging as the de facto standard for mobile Internet site naming
The mobile Web is growing exponentially, recording 700% growth in the past year. With this growth, however, comes the need for standardization to allow the mobile Web to continue to develop. We’ve seen this numerous times in the past where competing technology standards have delayed widespread adoption. In the 1970s it was VCR vs. Betamax and in the 1990s it was Digital Audio Tape vs. MiniDisc vs. CD. In both of these cases, it was the format that got in the lead first, and enjoyed the widest industry support, that eventually triumphed. Today .mobi enjoys this same position as the most prevalent mobile domain in use.
.mobi domains are whitelisted by network level transcoders
Designing great mobile sites takes time and effort to get the most out of the limited screen resolution and navigation mechanisms of mobile phones. Having invested money and time in creating your mobile presence, you don’t want a third-party transcoder modifying your site … but this is exactly what happens when you use a non-standard name for your mobile Web site. As a rule, mobi sites are automatically whitelisted by all network-level transcoders, so you can be sure your site will render as you intended on all mobile devices.
.mobi domains offer better search engine performance
In North America alone, search engine marketing last year was at $12.2 billion and is forecast to grow to $25 billion by 2011. Those numbers show that search engine performance has become crucial to the success of any business. Because every .mobi domain registered gets its own entry in the Internet Zone File — the files that search engines use to start their crawls — your site will automatically perform better than any other naming convention. Additionally, search engines detect when searches are being made from mobile devices and prioritize their results accordingly. Because mobi sites are high quality and made for mobile, they are automatically brought to the top of the mobile search results.
.mobi names are designed for mobile use
Despite having close to one million names registered, the .mobi domain still has a lot of great names available. Having a short domain name is essential for mobile applications where entering long URLs is cumbersome. This is great news for companies who did not get their first preference .com address. With the mobile Web experiencing year-on-year, three-digit growth (and forecast to continue doing so), creating a memorable mobile presence now represents a huge opportunity for future growth.
.mobi is actively promoted and industry supported
The primary goal of .mobi and its founders is the widespread growth and use of the mobile Web. For consumers, it’s essential that mobile content be easily found and navigated; it’s this need for standards that prompted ICANN to make .mobi the only authorized top-level domain for finding mobile content. And by having the founding support of industry heavyweights such as Microsoft, Nokia and Google, dotMobi is able to drive this agenda forward to create a single, globally recognized domain naming convention for the mobile Web.
Test your Web site to see if it’s ready for mobile customers!
There are more mobile phones in the world than televisions and PCs combined. And millions of people are using those mobile phones to connect to the Internet.
To see your site the same way these millions of mobile users do, try the dotMobi phone emulator, which “emulates” a real mobile phone Web browser.
Summary
Almost 98% of the 42 million plus smartphone users in the US visit their favorite websites. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you’re missing a major opportunity.
[Note] Article Credit goes to Vance Hedderel of dotmobi.dotmobi
Tags: Mobile, Web Design
