But I Need a Mobile Site Right Now - Tech Tuesday

Okay, in my last blog post I said "Build for mobile first" when redesigning your site; however, some people can't wait for their next redesign and for that I have a solution that I came across at the Google for Non-Profits Pre-Conference at the Non-Profit Technology Conference. Best of all, it's cheap, easy and free. It's the mobilize project from Google Sites -- sites.google.com/mobilize.

If you go this route, a few tips:

• This is a separate site from your main site and should be designed with that in mind. Think about what people go to your site to do when accessing it on the go. Don't know what your mobile traffic is doing on your site, Google Analytics now has a mobile report to split out what mobile visitors do when they come to your site.
  
  
• Since this is a separate site, you will have to have your webmaster or server administrator redirect your mobile traffic to this new site. You'll want to do it this way instead of a link, so that it is seamless to your visitors.
  
  
• Your mobile site should always have a link to your full website, in case people need something that is on your main site that isn't on your mobile site, etc.

Some other things to keep in mind when thinking mobile:

• If your site is not flash heavy, your regular site will most likely be passable for tablets. Start with mobile phone design first. Then worry about designing for tablets.
  
  
• 79% of businesses don't have a mobile-optimized site, so don't panic yet; however, the goal is to be in front of the curve, so don't wait for that stat to hit 50%.
  
  
• About 90% of adults have a cell phone and about half of those are smartphones.
  
  
• 10% of smartphone users report donating on their mobile device, so at the very least make sure that your donation page works well on mobile devices.