Optimising your Site for Apple’s iPad

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The iPad has been around for quite some time now and despite the initial doubt in the device, it has actually gone on to start an entire new computing revolution which is tablet computing. The fact of the matter is that although this type of computing has only been popular for a year or so, you really need to start taking it into account and optimising your websites for use on the Apple iPad as well as many other tablet computers out there. Here are a few things that you can do to make sure that your website displays as it should on these devices.

1. Don’t use Flash: This is an extremely important thing to consider when it comes to making your website both search engine friendly and user friendly. The iPad device does not support flash at all which is why you should try not to have it. Millions of people will browse the web on the iPad so it is much better to use a HTML5 alternative to flash instead. For example, if you have video, you should try and use a HTML5 player instead of flash. If you are embedding from YouTube or Vimeo, this is already sorted for you.
2. Site loading time: Another thing that you need to consider for tablets is the sites loading time. Although most tablets like the iPad will often run off Wi-Fi networks in the home, there are many out there that will often run on 3G. This will mean that things load a little slower so you need to optimise your website to load as fast as it possibly can on these connections. This means don’t have any big images etc.
3. Have an iPad version of your website: Most websites these days will have a mobile version of their site and believe it or not, you can also get an iPad version of your website made that would be perfectly optimised for the devices. This is easier than you might think and there are a number of templates out there that makes your website iPad friendly too.

The iPad is something that all website owners need to take into account as iPad web browsing is huge at the moment.