Ten years ago most small business owners didn’t have a website and probably didn’t see the need for one. Now, a business without a website is considered second rate at best. A website is a necessity for doing business in the 21st century - but how does your website appear on the screens of today’s most popular mobile devices?

How does it look on an iPod touch? Is it easy to navigate? Your most important information should be readily available to your visitors, who may be standing in line or walking down the street browsing your content on a screen smaller than a pack of playing cards. Is your website ready to be viewed from an iPhone? 


According to recent statistics, over 500,000 Americans are getting their news and information from their mobile phones. Those numbers increase at a staggering rate when we include the mobile devices saturating global markets. The worldwide popularity of surfing the net on iPhones will multiply exponentially as each new generation discovers the vast world their mobile devices unlock.

Microsites of the Future
Mobile devices are the future of Internet browsing and iPhones provide the most intuitive interface for doing so, hands down. Over 200,000 developers have downloaded the software development kit, which Apple provided specifically for the purpose of creating web applications and microsites for the iPhone. With this sort of interest in broadening the usability of websites on iPhone/iPod touch devices, you can be sure that the coming age of iPhone microsites will not be just a passing trend.

The incredible popularity of the iPhone is leading the way to new website platforms for businesses as well. As web technologies improve, more and more people are using their iPhones to identify products they want to buy. However, even though improved navigation capabilities make it easier for iPhone users to do so, there is still one (not so) big problem. Small screens make for difficult viewing.

Most Websites Look Terrible on an iPhone
Unfortunately, shrinking a website to fit on the screen of an iPhone leads to difficulty in viewing and finding information. Navigation options are too small resulting in content that is hard to read and difficult to interact with; text display is awkward and zooming in and panning are often required. After the allure of “surfing the web from anywhere” subsides, the practical effect of browsing on the iPhone leaves much to be desired. Leading the field in custom solutions is iPhone Microsites LLC, which will create a microsite for you and optimize your content while leaving your desktop viewers totally unaffected. There are also other steps you can take on your own to make your current site more friendly, as we discuss here.

Conclusion
Customizing an iPhone microsite may be as simple as providing an “optimized view” of your current website, completely reformatting your content, or anything in between. Each business owner must decide what will best attract customers to his or her site and influence them to buy. Addressing this growing reality sooner rather than later will give your business a jump on its competition. But whether you make those changes now or not, the internet is shifting off the desktop and into the hands of consumers who are on the move. With an iPhone friendly website, you’ll attract these affluent visitors to your site. Without it, you won’t.

-Shaun Mackey

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