The world has gone upwardly mobile. The years of dragging around a laptop or sitting in front of a PC are over. Most people do their web browsing using a smartphone, tablet, or other mobile devices.
Today, more than one fifth of North Americans use a mobile device for internet access. If you have a website, it is in your best interest to make a mobile-friendly website.
Below are some of the advantages to making a mobile-friendly website:
- An Improved Experience for Mobile Users
Have you ever tried to view a desktop webpage on a mobile device? It is hard to navigate through the website, and it takes forever for the pages to load. Mobile websites have an adaptive or responsive layout that helps optimize mobile sites by increase their usability. Improved usability leaves a positive impression on users. - Create Your Brand
With a mobile website, you can have a brand identity that stands out on any mobile device. You will be able to make a positive statement with a solid brand identity. - Faster Download Speed when viewing from Mobile Device
Mobile-friendly websites are design to accommodate and optimize mobile devices speed. Your users will spend more time browsing your website and less time waiting for it to load or buffer. - Increased Average Time on Site
Your website can be assessed anywhere. This helps with portability and connectivity. As a result, you will get an increase in time spent on your mobile-friendly website. - New Face of Advertising
Mobile advertising is the future of advertising. People are attached to their phones and tablets. You can use a mobile-friendly website to promote a sale or special. You can use GoogleAds or Pay Per Click programs to help generate traffic to your business and/or website. - Impact the Offline World
Mobile devices can bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds. This process occurs through QR codes. People can use their mobile device to scan a paper code, and they are instantly connected to some promotion or website. These codes are used for coupons, advertisements, brochures, posters, and just about anything that is printed. - Less Cost than App Development
Making a mobile-friendly website is less expensive than developing an app version of your website. If you want to develop an app, you will have to develop an app for different platforms. For example, you will need an app for an iPad, Android, Windows tablet, Blackberry, etc. With a mobile-friendly website, people can access your website from any device. Mobile-friendly websites are a one size fits all deal. It is also easier to update a mobile website than it is to update an app. - Engagement and Context
Most mobile-friendly websites have functions such as click to call that immediately engages users. If you have a local business, a mobile website can help you reach new customers through the location-aware technology. This technology works to help users connect to a website that has a location close to their current GPS coordinates. - SEO Improvement
A mobile-friendly website helps you improve your sites search engine rankings on Google and other similar sites. You will also be able to place your website in many of the growing number of mobile and local directories.
Adaptive (AWD) and Responsive (RWD) Websites
There are two types of mobile friendly website builds: an adaptive website (AWD) or a responsive (RWD) website. There are similarities, and key differences, between both types of layouts.
Adaptive Web Design
An adaptive layout is the most pragmatic option. It can defined as creating interfaces that can easily adapt to a user’s capabilities. It has prerequisite settings that help it adapt to most mobile devices. You will have more control if you use this layout.
Adaptive layouts use three components of progressive enhancements to make the predefined mobile settings. They are the content layer (rich semantic HTML markup), presentation layer (CSS and styling), and the Client-side scripting layer (JavaScript).
An adaptive mobile-friendly web design is less expensive than a responsive web design, but it does not have the flexibility that comes with choosing a responsive web design. Adaptive layout does not require a complete rewriting of your website code. It is less expensive to convert an existing website into an adaptive layout than it is to convert it to a responsive web design.
Responsive Web Design
Responsive Web Design gets its name from Ethan Marcotte. It is more flexible than adaptive change. People refer to it as have fluidity to change and response. This means that it can easily respond to fit any mobile device at any angle.
Responsive layout works by having a primary task of integrating CSS3, the @media rule, media queries, and percentages of fluid grids that are used to create a foundation that is flexible. This foundation helps your mobile-friendly website adapt to the user agent and environment.
Responsive Web Design creates flexible images. This can be a great advantage for mobile websites, because many people like to enlarge images to get a closer look. This is something that cannot be done as accurately on a desktop browser.
Adaptive/Responsive: Which one is best?
Responsive layouts have hundreds of different states that you have to consider when developing your mobile-friendly website. This can make it difficult to anticipate what your design will look like. However, you can be assured that a responsive layout will work well and be user friendly. You will have to hope that your layout is aesthetically pleasing to users.
Adaptive web design has some advantages over RWD. You will have better control over line lengths, and you can make sure your mobile-friendly website does not have orphaned header text. Responsive layouts are considered the better choice for computer savvy people, but if you are do not want any hassle of dealing with code or you want to make sure you have complete control over your website layout, you should pick an adaptive layout.
There are many advantages to having a mobile-friendly website. Whether you pick a responsive or an adaptive layout, mobile-friendly websites are the best way to increase your visibility on the web and make your website more user friendly.
