Mobile is an increasingly important aspect of an effective online marketing plan. It’s not enough to have an incredible website even if the content is optimized with long tail keyword research. It’s got to be mobile-optimized. What does that mean? It means it’s got to read well on a smartphone, iPad or other small mobile device. Just because you have a website doesn’t mean it shows up well on a mobile device.

If over half of US smartphone users are accessing Facebook on their phone, there’s probably a 50% chance that your customers are also trying to access your website on their phone. Can they? Websites that aren’t optimized for mobile are harder to navigate. Paging through the site is a pain because of the extra scrolling one has to do just to navigate the site.

It also just plain looks ugly when I access a site on my smartphone that isn’t optimized for mobile, as the elements of the site can move out of place instead of being laid out with some kind of sense.

So how do you know if your site is optimized for mobile? There are a number of apps available that will tell/show you the current state of your site’s “mobileness” online. I tried some out, and the one I liked the most was http://validator.w3.org/mobile/. It gives a simple overview of where a site stands on mobile effectiveness, along with a list of where it needs to be improved.

If a site is fairly new, it’s probably on a platform that is already mobile optimized, but it’s worth checking out! Some may argue that most people still do their Internet browsing on their desktop. Stats on mobile usage indicate increasing usage worldwide. Still not sure? Well, how would you rank your own use of mobile? Is it increasing? Mine is. Sooner or later it’s mobile will be more mainstream than not, is my guess. Is your website going to be ready?