Posts Tagged mobile web development
Seattle Web Designers Discuss: What Mobile Website Do You Need?
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on July 8, 2014
Talking to someone about what you need for your website might be confusing if don’t know an especially lot about web design. Especially with all of the choices and options available. Mobile website? Responsive design? What?
If you want to make your website mobile friendly (and you should since at least 40% of normal traffic is mobile based), then you have to choose one (or several) options. Unfortunately, that’s more than a little difficult if you don’t know the differences. So what are the different ways to go mobile? Keep reading to find out what Seattle web designers have to say on the matter.
A Mobile Website
A mobile website is a secondary website with a different URL (usually m.yourdomain.com) that automatically redirects when it detects that the visitor is not on a browser. This allows the website to automatically adjust to the mobile version. A couple of points to keep in mind are that the result is a completely different website, so you can control everything that mobile users see because you can create entirely different content for mobile. This is great if your main website is complex, or you want to narrow the mobile options down to the absolute basics. If you are familiar with SEO, you may guess that this is bad for SEO in that you have two entirely different websites, one of which is only available for mobile, and ranking does not carry through to the mobile version, however, they do rank extremely well for mobile search. Mobile websites are faster than responsive websites because
Mobile Responsive Design
Mobile Responsive design is completely different from a mobile website in that it uses the same URL, and is in fact, the same website. Responsive design detects the screen size of the user based on the dimensions of the browser and then re-adjusts to that screen size using a set of given parameters. Essentially, your responsive design looks different for each mobile device, because it has been designed separately for each device, and then told to adjust. This is better for users because they don’t have to worry about being redirected to another site, and better for SEO because you are only using one website. Sometimes responsive design is also more difficult for users to navigate because you are essentially just resizing everything for the device.
So which is the best option for you? Most people end up choosing between mobile and responsive design based on their budget, their customer needs, and customer volume. If you have to give customers the best experience possible then mobile web design is faster and more user friendly. On the other hand, if you’re looking for an affordable experience that allows you to easily change your website from one size to another, then responsive is the way to go.
Want to know more about different types of web design or discuss your options? Contact Rory Martin to talk with our professional Seattle web design team about your business on the web.
Mobile Is Taking Over the Web – Are You Ready?
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on March 29, 2013
If you’ve ever stopped for a moment to look up a website, store, or restaurant on your phone or tablet, then you’re not alone. Statistics show that more and more consumers are using their mobile phone to research and purchase items online, while websites aren’t really catching up to the trend. In fact, a study in early 2013 shows that 51% of people are more willing to make a purchase from a site with mobile optimized content, but only about 4.8% of applicable sites actually have mobile optimization. With this in mind, jumping on the mobile bandwagon could benefit you more than you might think. Mobile web development services are often more affordable than original website creation, and you can likely use most of your original web design.
Mobile Search to Surpass PC Search by 2014
Experts in mobile and standard search have been saying it since 2011, and are still saying it now in 2013. Mobile Search is expected to surpass computer based searches by 2014, even if it is as little as 1%. Currently consumer based searches on mobiles are at 41% compared to 59% on computers, meaning that mobile doesn’t have too far to catch up. Combined with the eye opening stats on purchases and research, going mobile could be very important for your site.
What is a Mobile Website?
So what is a mobile website? Chances are if you’ve ever taken a moment to research something on the web and you came across an impossibly small website with floating social share buttons in the way, or popup ads that were impossible to close, then your immediate response was to leave. Chances are that this site looked great on a web browser, but on your phone, it’s almost impossible to read.
A mobile website is one that has been designed with mobile use in mind. Typically there are no sidebars and are optimized for smaller screens with single row wider text that can be read more easily. Ads, if any, should be inserted between lines of text rather than on the side, and anything that floats should typically be removed.
If you aren’t sure how to go about creating a mobile website for your site, you can check with a web developer and ask about using canonical URLs to ensure there is no duplicate content on your site.
Is Mobile Optimization Right For You?
While only about 4.8% of websites have mobile optimized pages, mobile optimization isn’t for everyone. Not every site can benefit from utilizing mobile search, so it is always important to look into the facts before spending your time and money. Popular tools such as How to Go Mobile can be used to calculate how much each mobile click is worth to you, so that you can decide whether or not optimizing for mobile use is good for you. For example, a study by Adidas showed that every mobile search was worth $3.60 because 1 in 5 searchers ended up as a customer.
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