Gone are the days of unbelievably expensive charges to surf the web on your unbelievably slow mobile phone. These days Americans are ready to do business on the mobile web, but very few sites are mobile-ready. When you are considering your brand and presence online, be sure you add “buy dot mobi domain” to your to-do list.
There are more mobile phones in circulation right now than PCs and television sets put together. More than half of these phones are less than a year old, meaning that they are all internet-ready. The problem is this: the technology is there, but the content is not. There are simply not that many web developers creating a mobile version of their site.
For anyone who is still a bit fuzzy regarding the mobile web, a dot mobi domain is not necessary to create a mobile-ready site. However, the extension clearly designates the mobile version of your site. Visitors will know immediately that your site will appear correctly on their cell phones. This builds trust in your site while at the same time urging people to check it out.
If you act now, you could have a strong first mover advantage. More and more people are surfing the internet on their cell phones these days. Wireless broadband is within a reasonable price range for most of us now and nearly all phones have at least some sort of browser available. My work cell is a Samsung i760 smartphone with Windows Mobile, but even my personal Juke (hate it, don’t buy one ever unless you are a teenager with no iPod) has web browser capabilities.
The potential of a dot mobi domain will grow exponentially in the coming years, giving you a chance to establish yourself in a whole new arena. So you aren’t the known expert on affiliate marketing in the blogosphere? What if you bought a dot mobi domain and established your preeminence in the mobile blogosphere? This could be a lot bigger deal than it might seem right now. Here are just a few quick stats:
- 4x as many cell phones are sold as computers = 1.3 billion people with access to the internet via cell phone
- Mobile web commerce is predicted to generate $150 billion by 2011
- @ 30% of Americans say they would make purchases on the mobile web if the option was more readily available
- Out of the 80 million + active domains, less than 0.03% are currently mobile-friendly
- Mobile advertisers spent more than $1.5 billion in 2007.
Just like dot com and dot net, premium dot mobi domains come with premium prices, but you can most likely land the dot mobi version of your dot com for a standard domain price. Once you have purchased your domain name, I suggest you visit the Mobile Web Development Guidelines on the official .mobi website. The site is also great for questions about why and how to set up your mobile domain.
Note: If you have a Wordpress Blog, check out the Wordpress Mobile Plug-in.
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great post
I saw a video not too long ago (end of 2007). Matt from Google was talking about the future of SEO in 2008, and of the 3 things he listed, he notes mobile devices as one of them.
Nashville SEO Zombie’s last blog post..Writing For SEO
This is something that every web designer now is going to have to take into consideration.
hijinks’s last blog post..dezwozhere 2.0: dez is back!
I wonder if there will be a need for much change. Will future phones be more like the iPhone and have a full browser or will they need site designed just for mobile? At the moment, it is difficult to offer both. The plugin above for WordPress will mess with your rankings for standard sites.
I do agree that mobile content will be very important in the near future. I would like to start preparing now.
James - DigitalKeyToInfo’s last blog post..Popular Financial Blog Blocked As Spam By BlogSpot
I think mobile apps will be a big part of the future in this country, much like they are in Europe and Asian now. The real roadblock here is the service providers. They hold all the cards on features and mobile web browser capabilities.
I think speeds are more than adequate for online sales, the only problem is still the screen size. I can see this being a major source of revenue for some but can’t see it really taking off until the screen size and resolutions on cell phones increases. I use a smartphone for remote access of information and email, I can’t yet see how I’d shop or comparison shop online in a reasonable amount of time.
Green’s last blog post..BPA In Your Promotional Products
Making your website mobile-friendly will certainly generate a lot of traffic for you because in the past years, the number of mobile internet users has increased dramatically.