There’s a lot of talk going on in the technology world about mobile websites vs. responsive websites vs. mobile-optimized sites. ALMOST any website can currently be viewed on a mobile device. However, it’s fairly easy to spot if a company has taken the time to actually produce a mobile version of their site. The best way to tell is to look and see if everything is visible without the need to pinch, zoom, or scroll in order to view the content. If a website shows up super small on your screen and you have to zoom in to see the content, chances are it’s not optimized for your device.
Responsive websites have been around for a few years. They are gaining more popularity now that more people surf the web on their tablet or phone vs. their desktop computer. While responsive websites work for a lot of people, it’s not necessarily for everyone. Highly stylized websites with lots of graphics and moving pieces might not “respond” well on an iPhone. In these cases, creating a strictly mobile phone version of the website is ideal. This is something we did recently for one of our clients, Party Planet Xtreme. Their website design is amazing, but it was so heavy on graphics and design elements that it wouldn’t work well as a responsive site. So, we created a website works great on desktops and tablets, then created a simpler version especially for mobile phones. All the content is the same, and it all gets updated in one place. Even though mobile devices are getting faster each year, the mobile site needs to be optimized in order to run at the highest speed possible. Nobody wants to sit and wait a few minutes for content to load-in our fast-paced and tech-savvy society, this is usually when the user moves on to the next site.
So…is your website mobile-friendly? If it is, you’re a step ahead of the game. If not, our web development services can help you. Just give us a call!
