Posts tagged .mobi
Mobile websites
27 Aug 2010
Just as half the internet is still trying to get online it seems that the other half has decided that computers are old and mobile is the future. As always, it’s a compromise. Most companies do still need a “base” website but mobile is definitely growing and by having a dedicated mobile presence you can keep customers from forgetting about you when they aren’t tied to a computer.
What is a mobile device?
You may think this is a strange question but statistics vary hugely depending on the demographic of visitors to your site. From a truly worldwide perspective Nokia still has a very large market share. Continents such as Africa absorb most of their web browsing in a mobile form where Nokia has a monopoly and few people have desktop computers.
It’s a very good idea to look at your website statistics to find out the type of visitors that your site is getting. Technology sites such as this one are mainly visited with newer smartphones which can deal with more complex webpages and which makes things a lot easier.
Finally, lets not forget the new range of mobile devices, the tablets! Is an iPad a mobile device? Either way, if you are designing for mobile, you should design for tablets too.
Ways to go mobile
There are many ways to go mobile. If you have the budget you can design a customised site although most sites are built via a CMS such as WordPress or Joomla. For WordPress we have found that the WPtouch plugin provides a very nice mobile version of your site if most of your visitors are using newer smartphones and the WordPress Mobile Pack plugin provides a mobile version of your site that works with the most variety of phones. There are similar plugins for Joomla and other CMS tools which we can help you with if you have any questions.
Dogsbody Hosting also provides a mobile webpage service that allows you to create a mobile website easily without any coding experience needed. Create a quick site to publish your companies opening hours or offer discount vouchers to people reading your posters in the street. The possibilities are endless.
If you have made a mobile site using the tools we have told you about here then please let us know in the comments.
It doesn’t always have to be .com
18 May 2010
In some ways the internet is very crowded (100 million active websites) and in other ways very quiet (most web traffic is caused by few sites) but it’s important to remember that the internet is pretty much limitless and there is more than one way to claim your acre of land online.
When first creating a website it’s easy to instantly think that you need a .com web address or that you are just in the UK so can go with a cheaper .uk address. There is nothing wrong with that but with .com being the busiest of all the top level domains (TLDs) and .uk now being the 2nd largest country code top-level domain (ccTLD) it’s quite hard to get the name you want.
Two is better than one
It’s always a good idea to own more than one domain. You may only need one domain to run your site but you have to ask yourself how you or your company would feel if you owned the .com address and then someone else went and bought the .co.uk? Remember that they can use the domain for whatever they like which may be something you don’t want associated with your name and brand.
Having multiple domains can act as a backup too, if you can receive email on more than one address then should something happen it can allow you to carry on running, at least while things are sorted out. And before you ask what can happen to domain names that you own… they can be stolen/hijacked, taken offline by authorities or even forget to be renewed… although we would never do that!
Another advantage to owning several domains, they can be utilised for different areas of your business. .tv domains are a great example of this allowing it to point to video content. Instead of hiding tutorials or a video blog deep on your website or on YouTube why not point your customers straight there.
Speciality domains
Speciality domains are domain extensions with a specific meaning that is well known to Internet users. These domain extensions provide a clue to visitors that tells them the type of content to expect or what form that content will take.
.me – Not many think about Montenegro when they see a .me domain. The use is obvious, .me means it’s about me. Visitors to the site will expect content about the person who owns the domain. Recommended for blogs, a CV or resume, photo sharing, anything personal.
.tv – “If you have a play button on your website you should have a .tv”. Visitors to a .tv site know what to expect, video content. Recommended for tutorials, family video sharing, screencasts, live streams & YouTube channels.
.mobi – Specifically designed to host mobile content. Most CMS driven sites such as WordPress and Joomla can seamlessly offer a mobile formatted page and it’s a good way to advertise this to mobile visitors.
.co – A great alternative to the .com TLD. Also has additional meanings such as co-op.
Other domains
You don’t always need a speciality domain, there are the standard ones too.
.com – The original and still has its place. Recognized globally as the biggest.
.net – You can’t get more tech than a .net domain. Perfect for Internet companies or groups that work in the online world. Many companies also have a .net version of their domain which is used by the IT group to name and manage machines used by the company, this separates the IT “tinkering” from the marketing “sales”.
.org – Always intended to be used for personal sites .org has now lost that moniker and is deemed by some as just for non-profits. Some companies like to have a commercial presence on .com and their organisational details on .org.
.info – Of the seven new TLDs introduced in 2000 .info has become the most successful. “Info” is a recognized term in over 30 languages which makes this TLD a truly global domain.
.biz – A popular alternative for companies whose business name is already taken as a .com.
.eu – For a UK company branching out from our small island it can get expensive to start registering and promoting domains in every country. The .eu allows for a pan European look.
.uk – Not to be belittled. You may be a sports club or local group, even if you do leave the UK you still want to promote yourself as a UK team or company. What could be better than having it in your name.
Whatever you choose you can see that there are plenty of options. Perhaps Dogsbody Technology or Dogsbody Hosting can help you with your decision.
Let us know what you think too. There are many many more TLD and ccTLDs, which ones do you like?