In the past couple months 4 of the top 5 most visited websites in America have undergone major redesigns:

• Amazon – went live a few weeks ago
• Facebook – announced yesterday, live Sept. 29th
• Google sites (Gmail, Calendar, etc)
• YouTube – cosmic panda update went live 5 weeks ago
• Pandora (not a top 5 site, but top 50) – went live Wednesday

These kinds of investments are thousands of dollars and often times many months and even years in the making. So why would so many top websites make this transition all at the same time? The answer, we believe, is a fundamental shift in the way people use and access the Internet.

A major focus of these redesigns was how they would be rendered on a mobile device. Amazon made the search box much larger and more prominent (signaling a more consumer-based approach) and made their buttons bigger and more identifiable. Facebook’s new Timeline is optimized for mobile much more than the old profiles. Google made the buttons bigger on sites like Gmail and Google Calendar, and Pandora did the same.

Companies are moving away from simply cramming as much information as possible onto one page and making things simpler for the consumer. Yes, this helps with aesthetics, but it also signifies the realization that more and more people are going to these sites from a mobile device and need to be able to easily access the different features. Flash-heavy sites are slowly going away – in favor of a simpler approach.

Here’s your homework: Take a look at your website. Is it mobile friendly? Or are the buttons small and hard to navigate? Is it image heavy, so it takes a long time to load on a mobile device? Heck, access your website from your own smartphone…how does it look and feel? Think like a consumer, and take a long, hard look at your mobile strategy (if you don’t have one yet, you are already behind!).

We all know that every company needs a website. That’s old news. What your company now needs is a mobile-ready website. What does this mean? The percentage of people who use their mobile devices as their primary internet connection is going up by the day. And the reality is that many websites out there simply will not look good on a mobile screen. Maybe you have a key feature that uses Flash – but the millions of iPhone users out there won’t be able to access it.

Your mobile traffic (and overall traffic) is guaranteed to increase if your mobile website is easily navigable. Considering most companies have yet to do this, you are guaranteed to be ahead of the curve. Here are some things that need to be taken into consideration:

• Defining the need. Do you need both a new “regular” and mobile site? This could be a good time to upgrade both. Or perhaps you are redesigning an existing site to be more mobile-friendly. Sit down with your team and consider all the options.
• Cross-platform accessibility. With the ever-changing landscape of people’s browsing habits, you want to have a way to be able to create a site that is accessible on iPhones, Androids, Blackberrys, Nokias, tablets, e-readers and any other new technology that pops up. The emergence of HTML5 technology will certainly help this.
• Simple is best. Mobile web speeds are still a bit slower than desktop web speeds. Keep this in mind. People do not like waiting, so don’t try to load up your site with all the bells and whistles of your desktop site. People mainly want information when accessing the web on their mobile device. So give them that, and don’t worry about the interactive videos. Yet.
• Keep it vertical. In today’s world of wide screen computers and even TVs, websites are going horizontal. Multiple columns and tabs across the screen means more information visible to you at once. Mobile is obviously not like that, however, so your pages and tabs should be vertical, preferably with a single column.
• From “click” to “tap”. Instead of clicking, people are using their fingers for navigation. Make sure buttons aren’t tiny and right next to each other. This is a small detail, but an important one to consider.
• Test, test, test. Give the site a test drive on as many different devices as you can before launching. Within your circle you are likely to know people across various mobile operating systems and devices. Make sure it’s operating smoothly on as many fronts as possible.

(source)