These days, it is very important to reach your customer base through your website. In this digital age, it also means making sure that your customers can locate your site on any platform and remain content during that experience. Being mobile-friendly is critical to your business's value and your customers' happiness.
Responsive design is dynamic content that changes based on the needs of the user and device. Text, images, and a website grid are responsive to the screen size, and images and content that is inconvenient will be removed. Furthermore, the website itself relies on the mobile operating system to function. If a large majority of your web traffic is viewing your site on a mobile device and you have a complex website, you're probably going to want to change your site template to be responsive.
A mobile-friendly website, however, is designed to work the same way across all devices. It is more complicated in the fact that a dedicated mobile-friendly site lives on a subdomain of your main site and can be harder to manage. When designing these websites, web developers tend to keep navigation simple and do not include animations or features that require Flash. Think about implementing a mobile-friendly website design if you can organize and prioritize your content. Some content may be removed to accommodate the mobile-friendly sites, so websites with limited text and images are good candidates.
SEO Value and Google's Algorithm
With the smartphone making life easier and information becoming more accessible, there's been a huge change in mobile reliability. It's no surprise that one of the top multinational companies in the world has found a way to encourage businesses to move quickly with that change. In 2015, Google began giving a preference to mobile-optimized sites in their search results. Not only does this significantly increase online visibility, it also gives your business more credibility. You never know where or when your target customer will arrive on your site, so it's important to have a website that represents your brand accurately across any platform. Websites that aren't mobile-friendly are quickly being pushed down the search results page and away from customers. Focus on being flexible within the fast-evolving digital landscape.
How to Implement a Mobile-Friendly Website
The quickest way to make your site mobile-friendly is to create a mobile version of your desktop site. This requires using conversion platforms, and while it is a simple way to bring your site to compliance, it requires two websites. This is harder to update frequently and can be more frustrating to manage. The next, and most popular way to convert your site to be mobile-friendly and responsive is by changing your site template. Using site-managing systems such as WordPress or Drupal allow a website to be easily optimized for responsiveness by adjusting the template design. Responsive design ensures that your site can conform to any screen size and device. The design and functionality of the site is enhanced, and the user has the best possible experience at the mobile level, without a business having to compromise important information.
Whatever you do to make it easy for users to find and access your website, do it now. Each option has pros and cons, but it is best to get your site to a mobile-friendly level. Your website is there to support your business, and in order to do that, it needs to function properly and effectively.