Big news happening over here at DudaMobile this morning! If you haven’t already heard, Google’s new initiative to help businesses go mobile officially launched earlier this morning and we have been honored to team up with them!

DudaMobile has teamed up with Google to help launch GoMo, a nationwide initiative providing businesses with the tools and resources they need to create mobile websites.

“We are excited to work with Google to educate businesses about the benefits of the mobile web and offer solutions to enable them to convert their websites to mobile”, said Dennis Mink, VP Marketing. “Most business owners don’t understand the difference between a website and a mobile-optimized website, and how it can help them increase sales and revenue. So offering the education and the solution is key to driving adoption amongst businesses.”

With the rapid adoption of smartphones, the mobile web presents a real opportunity for businesses who enhance the mobile website presence. “Research shows that customers are more likely to search for information about a company first on their mobile devices or smartphones and get turned off if that website isn’t optimized for mobile.”

• U.S. smartphone users will reach 73.3 million by the end of 2011, representing 31 percent of the total mobile user population.
• By 2013, more people will access the web via mobile than desktop.
• According to a June 2011 Manta study, 69 percent of small business owners said that it is important for information about their business to be found easily via a mobile device.
• 61 percent of users called the business and 59 percent visited, after looking up a local business on their smart phone.

About GoMo

GoMo is a Google-led initiative dedicated to helping businesses ‘Go Mobile’ by providing them with the tools and resources they need to make their websites more mobile-friendly. On Google’s GoMo website, participating businesses can use the GoMoMeter tool to see how their own sites look and perform on mobile devices, and get personalized recommendations for developing a more mobile-friendly experience for their sites. The GoMo site has information about current mobile trends, best practices for launching mobile sites, a list of developers ready to help companies build sites for mobile, and much more. For more information, visit: howtogomo.com.

We are constantly changing and improving our mobile website creation tool to meet the needs of our customers and keep up with the rapidly growing mobile market. From new mobile website templates to easier ways to login to your account, take a look at what’s new with Duda this week!

Like what you see? Add these new features to your existing mobile website or create a new one here!

1. Social Media Share Buttons

We’ve revamped our social media share buttons! Clicking on the new Share Widget takes your mobile website visitors to a popup window where they can share your mobile website via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Email.

2. New Users: Create and Login to your DudaMobile account with Facebook

We’ve enabled a feature which allows new users to create a DudaMobile account by logging in with a Facebook account. On the Sign Up page, you can instantly create your account by clicking the Facebook Connect button above the text fields. As long as you’re logged into Facebook, you can easily login to your DudaMobile account. We added this convenient feature for all social media junkies who enjoy the ease of connecting everything to their Facebook account.

3. Attractive New Templates

Check out the newest additions to the template gallery! New themes include: legal, restaurant, plumber, taxi and construction. This is just a sneak peak of some of the awesome new templates!

4. Snazzy WordPress-Friendly Templates

We’ve added new templates that are specifically designed to compliment your WordPress blog. There are ten great designs to choose from, and many more to come. Don’t forget, all templates are fully customizable!

5. Blog Swipe Feature

Swipe between each blog post on your mobile optimized WordPress or Blogspot blog. After your blog is published and redirected, easily view each individual post with the swipe of a finger! Here’s how it works…

Know of ways we can improve even more?

We love hearing customer feedback about our tool (and gladly take it all into consideration!). Send me an email at theresa(at)dudamobile(dot)com if you have a compliment, opinion, complaint or just want to say “Hi”.

DudaMobile’s CEO and co-founder, Itai Sadan, had a conversation with Untether.tv’s Rob Woodbridge about the mobile space and the need for creating a mobile strategy. Watch the video below via Untether.tv.

How to build a mobile website to drive revenue and brand engagement – with Itai Sadan, co-founder and CEO

Mobile websites. Everyone is talking about the need to have one but why? What is the value of having a website built from the ground up for mobile devices? What are some of the best practices in building and using mobile websites for your business? What are some examples of great mobile websites? Which ones stink?

These questions – and MANY more – are the reason I asked Itai Sadan, co-founder and CEO of DudaMobile, on to UNTETHER.tv. Itai offers some great commentary on the need for a strategy and reason for implementing what seems to be a natural extension to what we do on the web – simple in idea, somewhat challenging in executing properly.

There are lots of takeaways from this session that should help cement your mobile website strategy and the reasons for moving into this space (hint: if it isn’t generating revenue or deepening a bond between you and your customer, question everything).

Our famous software which automatically syncs your regular website’s content to your mobile website, entices famous people to create mobile-friendly websites with us. This week we chose the winner for Mobile Website of the Week who’s mobile website packs as much punch as he does.

The Mobile Website of the Week winning title goes to a professional MMA fighter! Congratulations Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy!

Regular Website

Mobile Website

What did we like about this Mobile Website?

This mobile website is a miniature replicate of Dan’s regular website. All of the content on the regular site was transferred over to the mobile website. We compared and contrasted the two sites and found that very little content (almost none!) was deleted from the mobile website. This particular website design works well for Dan’s mobile site!

Did you see the photo album collection in the “Photos” tab? Clicking on each album reveals its photo gallery. All of Dan’s photos were properly organized just as they are in his regular website.

We also really liked how Dan’s mobile website has a live Twitter feed embedded into the home page. This is something we’ve never seen before in Duda history.

How Was this Mobile Website Made?

While Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy was busy training for his upcoming fight, his personal web designer, Elizabeth, worked hard to create this mobile website.

“I entered the URL and selected a standard template. Duda imported the site colors, so I just customized the navigation menu bars and icons accordingly.” Elizabeth included all navigation menu buttons in the mobile website.

After setting up the look and feel of the mobile site, Elizabeth went through each page and organized the content. In the Advanced Editor, she was able add a Shape Design around each photo album which helped identify one from the other. Separate albums allowed Elizabeth to display all of Dan’s photos in a more organized manner.

Because Dan’s regular website was made with WordPress, Elizabeth was able to install a widget which displays his Twitter feed.

Social media is important to Dan’s brand so it was crucial that his Twitter feed is displayed on his mobile website, just like it is on his regular site. When Elizabeth converted the site to a mobile-friendly website, the WordPress plugin was carried over with the rest of the site’s content.

Where can I learn more about Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy?

Visit Dan’s website to get more information about upcoming fights, behind the scene photos and to browse the merchandise in his online store.

Find him on Facebook, Twitter and watch his interviews and past fights on YouTube.

You Could be Next Week’s Mobile Website of the Week Winner!

Email me at theresa@dudamobile.com, tweet me at @dudamobile or contact me on facebook if you think your site rocks.

Has your mobile site been published? If your site wasn’t published, we didn’t see it (and neither did your customers). Check our Support Center for instruction on how to publish your mobile website!

Love making mobile websites? DudaMobile has recently rolled out a brand new reseller program! This program offers the following features to anyone who manages multiple clients.

• White label
• Reseller Discounts
• No Contract Term
• No Minimum Order
• Marketing and Platform Training Support
• Around-the-Clock Technical Support
• Referral Program

Three simple steps to becoming an official DudaMobile reseller:

1. Create an account with DudaMobile. If you already have a mobile website with us then you already have an account.
2. Fill out this form or follow the link below. Your information will be sent to support and be reviewed for eligibility.
3. Check your email. Once your account has been reviewed and approved, we will contact you within 24 hours.

Have a question? Email us at info@dudamobile.com or call 1-855-DUDA-247.

Why Wait? Apply to be a reseller now!

Since the official DudaMobile launch, we’ve seen some quality mobile websites created on our platform. We would like honor and thank everyone who has been helping us further our goal of making all websites mobile!

Our Mobile Website of the Week winner this week displayed a high level of technical skill and creativity when making their site.

Ladies and gentleman… the moment you’ve been waiting for… Congratulations Public Safety Alerts!

The two greatest things about this website are…

Navigation Menu: We absolutely loved how the sites Navigation Menu matched the colors and theme of the regular website.

HTML Fragment: Never before have we seen a mobile website with a HTML Fragment. This fragment contained a Current Incidents Ticker which was pulled directly from the regular website.

How was this mobile website made?

After the URL was entered and the site was converted, Andrew, from Public Safety Alerts, dove right into the Advanced Editor to begin working on his mobile website. Here he was able to delete content and change the background color. Andrew changed the Navigation Menu to a design which better suited the overall theme of his regular website.

The Public Safety Alerts regular website contains a ticker that displays up-to-date incidents related to fire, emergency medical services, police activity, weather and traffic situations. Andrew wanted his mobile website visitors to be able to see these alerts.

In order to display this ticker, Andrew used the Advanced Editor to add an HTML Fragment.

With the HTML Fragment, Andrew added an <iframe> element. The <iframe> imported the ticker from his regular website to his mobile website. Inserting this fragment in the header section allows the ticker to be displayed on each page.

 

What is Public Safety Alerts?

Public Safety Alerts is an incident notification group that sends out incidents from around the country pertaining to fire, police activity, EMS, rescue and severe weather. The incidents are sent out using a Mobile CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) Console and are updated by volunteer dispatchers, nationwide. This Mobile Paging Console makes it possible for dispatchers to page incidents while on their way to or from tending to an incident.

Connect with Public Safety Alerts

Visit their website to find out more about the group.

Don’t forget to like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter!

You could be next weeks website of the week winner!

Email me at theresa@dudamobile.com, tweet me at @dudamobile or contact me on facebook if you think your site rocks.

Has your mobile site been published? If your site wasn’t published, we didn’t see it (and neither did your customers). Check our Support Center for instruction on how to publish your mobile website!

With over 175,000 mobile websites currently hosted on the DudaMobile platform, we continue to strive to make all websites mobile friendly. We like to see our customer’s websites serve as a useful and effective tool for their business.

DudaMobile has teamed up with AdLift, to help mobile website owners learn more about the benefits of mobile SEO. Over the next few weeks, Prashant Puri from AdLift will be guest blogging about mobile SEO for business mobile websites.

Is it worth to invest in Mobile SEO ?

Gartner predicts that there will be 1.83 billion smartphones compared to 1.78 billon PCs worldwide by 2013. In the next 3 years, virtually all phones sold will be smartphone and according to Morgan Stanley, iphone + ipod touch reached 21 million users in 9 months – it took desktop internet a little over 3 years. These statistics point to the hyper growth of the mobile segment and the consumption of data via mobile phones. Furthermore, search engines are the #1 sites visited by mobile phone users. This brings me to the point of this blog post – if you own a website and are not driving mobile traffic via search, you are missing out on a significant segment of users depending on your category.

Source: Macquarie Capital, March 2011

So how does one reach the mobile search audience?  There are essentially two ways of doing this – 1) buying ads targeted toward mobile devices – PPC and 2) optimizing your mobile websites so that you rank higher on Google/Bing – Mobile SEO. In this post we’ll focus on Mobile SEO.

Since mobile searches are different from desktop searches – in intent, category and frequency – mobile SEO is hence different from desktop searches and SEOs should use the Google’s mobile keyword tool instead of the desktop & laptops tool while conducting keyword research.

Apart from making sure your mobile site is tightly targeted toward mobile queries, it’s very important to have to develop a mobile website that renders and validates based on the mobile markup dialects – WML, XHTML Basic, XHTML MP and cHTM. Dudamobile develops mobile websites that are XHTML compliant – this enables efficient mobile viewing for users and crawling by search engines.

Submitting a mobile sitemap to Google webmaster tool is equally important. The main difference between the mobile and desktop sitemap is the inclusion of <loc></loc> and <mobile:mobile/> indicators – for more detailed instructions check out – Adding mobile URL information to a Sitemap.

Links and link building is equally important if not more – it’s important to drive topically relevant links to your mobile website. If you are a local business it’s all the more important to be listed both on mobile directories (example: http://mobilinks.com/go/submit) and across local directories (example: yp.com) – these local directories signal to Google & Bing that these businesses are local and hence when a user does a mobile search with local intent – these results bubble up to the top of the SERPs.

Other SEO best practices remain the same –

1. Unique & descriptive title tags
2. Crawlable categorization and taxonomy.
3. Interlink appropriately between pages to enable the flow of link juice.
4. Submit mobile site to DMOZ
5. Do not use frames or flash
6. Invest in creating unique content through the site.
7. Using robots.txt correctly – this is an important one. I get asked frequently if mobile websites should be blocked in the robots.txt file to avoid duplicate content. Short answer – never! Matt Cutts explains this here in this video

Lastly, analytics – you should track your mobile website visits and see if all the effort you’ve put in to optimizing your site is paying off ! Also, it’s useful to know how mobile users interact with your website vs. desktop users in terms of bounce rates, page views, conversions etc. Google analytics provides a ton of insight on your mobile user – mobile operating system, device and service provider.

Mobile SEO a fast evolving space, where search engines like Google are investing heavily to make sure they provide the best user experience for their mobile users. As this space continues to advance, we’ll see a greater advantage for mobile optimized website that provides a better more efficient user experience. Small and medium scale enterprise owners should adopt fast if they want to compete successfully with larger brands.

About the Author

Prashant Puri has over 8 years of online marketing experience and has successfully built numerous sites into multi-million unique visitor sites through a combination of SEO & SEM. Prashant Puri is the co-founder of AdLift.com, a niche SEO company focused in delivering search ROI. Prior to AdLift.com, he was Head of Global Search Marketing for Shopping.com (an eBay Inc Company) where he was responsible for increasing search traffic across 3 websites – epinions.com, shopping.com and dealtime.com across 5 countries. Prashant frequently speaks at leading industry events including SMX, SES & Pubcon as an expert in search marketing. If you have any questions – feel free to reach out to him on LinkedIn.

The much anticipated big news is released!

We are pleased to announce the official launch of DudaMobile direct! We are happy to be the first, free, easy-to-use web-based platform that allows even the most non-techie user to easily turn websites into mobile friendly sites.

What’s new?

Along with the attractive, new facelift we’ve given our homepage, we have revamped the dashboard and added new templates. You can still find the famed Duda features which include: one-click conversion of existing website to mobile, auto-syncing between a standard website and mobile site, compatibility with all major smartphones and, as always, professional-looking mobile sites.

What does this mean for Beta users?

If you participated in our private beta, your site(s) created during that period will remain free of charge until next year. We will contact you via email regarding the payment change. Any site created starting August 2, 2011 will be priced according to our payment plan.

We thank you for helping us achieve our mission

The DudaMobile team is fully dedicated to making all regular websites mobile. We would like to thank EVERYONE who has supported the Dudas as we have been working hard to optimize the web for mobile devices.

Building a mobile website your customers will love is not the same as a standard website built for larger screen. Your mobile website needs to radically simpler, with a premium placed on quick access to the most important information a user might be looking for. When thinking about creating your mobile site for your business, make sure to include these top 5 features.

#1: One click access to contacting your business

Unlike a regular website, visitors to your mobile website are much more likely to contact your business via phone. According to recent data from Google and Ipsos OTX MediaCT, 61% of consumers who visit a mobile site from a search engine will call the businesses from their mobile phone. Make it easy for your site visitors by displaying your business phone number as a Click-to-Call button at the top of your mobile site home page.  When clicked on, customers will instantly connect with your business.

#2: Map & Directions

Similar to the Click-to-Call button, a very high percentage of visitors to your mobile site are interested in locating your business RIGHT NOW. According to the latest data by the International Data Corporation (IDC), 62% of consumers browsing a business mobile website are searching for the store location and directions. Make sure to add a simple Map & Directions button to your site that, when clicked on, opens up your address in built-in map application on the phone, enabling the user to quickly find directions to your location.

#3: Optimize your mobile website design

Choose or design a mobile site template that aligns with the theme of your desktop website. There is no such thing as a universal template, and no single mobile site template is appropriate for every webpage. Be creative with the template you choose and don’t be afraid to make simple tweaks to optimize your mobile website presence.

#4: Make your site legible

Mobile phones have a small screen, a slower connection to the internet and are incompatible with different types of multi-media formats like Flash. So keep your mobile website content simple and easy to read. Enlarge links and buttons to make it easy for users to select them. Delete unnecessary images and text. And make your site easy to read.

#5: Keep your mobile site in sync with your desktop site

When you update your desktop website with the latest news and information about your business, make sure to also update your mobile site as well. This includes business information, your location, store hours, contact phone number and so on. With Dudamobile, we do this for you automatically so you don’t need to worry about it.

If you keep in mind what your customers want when browsing your mobile website, you can provide them with an amazing mobile experience that will quickly lead to more calls, visits and sales.

This is a guest post from Webs.com

Webs, Inc. Website Owners Embrace DudaMobile Technology

As the Content Editor at Webs, Inc., the world’s most popular website-building solution, I watched with interest when we added DudaMobile to our available applications. The Mobile Website app, as we called  it, would give Webs users a way to mobile-optimize their websites with a single click. I was curious to see how the app would fare because small business owners are often too busy to adopt new technologies.

That was in November 2010. By March 2011, just four months later, over 50,000 Webs users were using the DudaMobile Mobile Website app to give their site visitors a best-in-class mobile experience. And 21% of surveyed Webs business users chose Mobile Website as their favorite third-party app in the Webs App store.

Webs users were also vocal with their requests. We listened and, in collaboration with DudaMobile, enhanced the app. A blog post we wrote about the updates, Mobile Website App-7 New Exciting Updates, received the following comments from our users:

• Matureo. love it. thanks heaps. have already gone mobile and can’t wait to get home from work tonight to experiment with these new enhancements.
• Buddy Web. okay, this is awesome!
• Island22horsepark. Ok just did it and it looks AMAZING on my iPhone!!! I haven’t seen what it looks like on a blackberry but I am thrilled!!! A HUGE percentage of our users are smartphone users and they are going to LOVE this. THANK YOU!
• Mary. The mobile app is AWESOME! I’ve had mobile traffic on my site for a long time & now my mobile users can take full advantage of my site! I installed the app before it was fully integrated with the other apps and it was ok. But now that the forums, photos, blogs and other pages are fully functional it is a work of genius! Thanks so much for giving us this functionality!!

When I think about it, I should have foreseen this warm reception. Many Webs users are small business owners who don’t have time to maintain two sites and therefore appreciate the automatic syncing. Just as importantly, DudaMobile helps fledgling entrepreneurs grow their customer base by capturing mobile traffic as well as PC-based traffic.

Those who run service-based businesses like restaurants and shops benefit in particular from DudaMobile’s “click to call” phone number widget and mobile map/directions widget, because they make it convenient for people to call or visit the storefront (thereby converting mobile traffic into paying customers).

So: case closed! DudaMobile’s technology is a huge hit with Webs users, as it deserves to be.