Google, Bing and Yahoo do not like a mobile website. I don’t like mobile websites. Also, I hate pinching and zooming websites any time I browse. Many companies are faced with difficult situations where they find their monthly/ daily traffic reducing. A recent research published by Inc magazine indicated that most Americans don’t like mobile websites. By mobile websites, I mean the summarized website which appears any time they browse from he iPad and Smart phones. Mobile websites are intended to provide users of the mobile devices a better and customized interface to suit their device screens.
Responsive websites on the other hand are those websites which respond to any size of a device. But that is the same case with mobile websites you may ask. However, there is a big difference between mobile websites and responsive websites. To create a mobile website, a separate website from the standard website while in a responsive, there is no need for all of that. In a responsive website, a single website is made to respond and adapt to all screen resolutions from the smallest phone to the largest screens.
A responsive website has many advantages when compared to a mobile website. First,a responsive website has all the capabilities of the website while a mobile website has limited capabilities. This is because a mobile website is basically a summarized website which excludes many of the capabilities of the original website. For instance, in many news websites, it is usually possible able to perform some actions such as commenting. However, in responsive website it is possible to perform these actions.
Secondly, it is much cheaper to design and maintain a responsive website. This is because many responsive websites are created using WordPress which is a Content Management System (CMS). This means that one does not need to update content into two separate websites. The content which is input on the website is able to be viewed on all the devices. More so, one is able to update responsive WordPress website at any place using his mobile devices such as Smartphones and tablets.
Thirdly, responsive websites are more search engine friendlier than mobile websites. Google and other major search engines have endorsed mobile websites. This is because in their crawling process, it is much better to crawl on one website than two websites at any time. All websites in the internet would like to have Google as their best friend. This means that it is always important to consider all of google’s regulations than to ignore them. Also, responsive websites are preferred by many people compared to mobile websites which means that you have a wider audience if you have a responsive website.
Last but not least, a responsive website is more cheaper to build and maintain than a separate mobile website. Picture this,would you consider paying for two websites or one website? For me,I would prefer paying for one powerful website than the former. It s important to note that having a separate mobile website, it will mean that you will have to always design mobile site wen any device is launched. For responsive web design, all you need is one website to cater for all screen resolutions.
At Expert Village media, we specialize designing high quality responsive WordPress websites. Since 2010, we have had over 500 clients with over 98% client satisfaction
Amit Porwal is the Founder and CEO of Expert Village Media, a team of Shopify development experts working on apps that enable merchants to do more with their stores. Check out all the apps here.