Mobile devices like smartphones and iPads now allow easy access to the Internet. That means a wider audience of potential viewers of your site, and more opportunities to reach existing ones. Are you sure your site is up for the challenge?More and more companies are creating special sites for viewing on mobile devices. The domain name .mobi is used for sites specially tailored for browsing by mobile devices. While the world of mobile web design is still very new, there are some emerging trends. One of the most important issues is navigation. The days of the omnipresent menu at the top of the screen may be going the way of the dinosaur for mobile users. After all, the menu cannot be shown without taking up a good deal of content space. A useful solution is to have a menu on your home page offering all of your relative links, and then offer a homepage link on every page.Navigation on the page itself also needs to be improved. It’s good practice to always limit scrolling to one direction, but on a mobile site, it’s almost a necessity. If your page scrolls in multiple directions, it’s easy for an accidental swipe to send the information you’re looking for zooming off the page.The smaller screen space means you’re going to have to throw a lot of your regular site away. That means thinking about what your customers really want. What information is most important? That’s the information that should be first and foremost on your mobile site. For example, the Expedia iPhone app shows your airline number, your departure and arrival times, and the gates for each. That’s it. Similarly, the Onion mobile site offers its latest articles with a small graphic for each one. You should be careful of using too many graphics in general, though, as they take up space on the screen and cause longer loading times.Links are a particular problem for mobile site navigators, as closely-clustered links provide a veritable minefield for all but the most nimble-fingered. To combat this, include lots of white space around your links, and make the font sizes bigger. You might want to experiment with other means of showing that a link has been visited, as well, such as changing the background color behind the text.The mobile revolution is an opportunity for companies to reassess their priorities, and for web designers to explore a whole new technology. Don’t let your company get left behind.