Maximizing Sites For Mobile Traffic
 

How different would a mobile-friendly site be as opposed to an iPad (or tablet) friendly site, and an ordinary site. Does this mean there should be three versions of the same site to maximize traffic?

That would be the optimal solution yes.

You really only need 2 versions, not 3. You can use the same version of a site on tablets but will want to serve different video that will play on tablets. H.264 MP4 video will play on them using the inline HTML5 player. This video format can also be played/downloaded on a PC or Mac.

Due to the smaller screen size it's a good idea to offer a different version of the site specifically designed for mobile.

This is how we do it by default for Elevated X CMS customers and it works great.

Hope this info helps.

AJ

depending on the type of site and if the content will allow, you can get away with one version, using a fluid layout + OS/user agent detection + CSS3