BY JENNIFER MANZ
It’s no secret that people use a handful
of different devices to search for businesses
online. As more people use their mobile devices,
one critical question remains: Is your
website mobile-friendly?
On mobile devices, a desktop-only website
can be very difficult to use, which means a
mobile-friendly website is essential if you
want to keep your visitors engaged. Without
a mobile-friendly website, there’s a good
chance visitors may leave your site and go to
a competitor’s mobile-friendly site which is
easier to read and navigate.
It comes as no surprise that Google has
clued into this behavior, too. In April, Google
changed the way websites were being ranked
in the mobile search results by rewarding
mobile-friendly websites.
Are you considering a mobile-friendly
website solution for your business? Below, we
provide a quick overview of the most common
solutions businesses generally use to ensure
they have a mobile-friendly presence.
• Mobile Website.
A mobile website is designed to be used
exclusively on smartphone devices and is generally
a separate version of your main desktop
website. When a smartphone user comes to
your website, an “auto-detect” will recognize
the device they’re using and then send him or
her to the mobile version of your website (for
example, “m.yourdomainname.com,” rather
than “www.yourdomainname.com”).
Mobile websites typically display a limited
number of the many pages that are featured
on the main desktop version of a company’s
website. However, many companies include
a link from the mobile version to their main
desktop website so that visitors have the
option of accessing additional information.
Since a mobile website is a condensed version of your desktop website, it’s generally
considered to be a budget-friendly temporary
solution if you don’t have the budget to immediately
invest in a responsive designed
website.
• Responsive Website.
A responsive website is a website that
is designed to be user-friendly on desktop,
tablet, and smartphone devices. Think of it
as having one website that works on many
different devices and screen sizes.
Rather than creating a separate version of
your website for smartphone visitors (as is
the case with a mobile website), the content
on a responsive website adjusts to fit the
screen dimensions of your visitors’ browsing
device.
A responsive website is ideal for SEO
because all of your webpages live on a single
domain (i.e. the “www.” version). Moreover, Google’s preferred configuration for creating
a mobile-friendly site is responsive design.
Additionally, it provides a consistent brand
experience across devices, such that the
color scheme, calls-to-action, and display
of information will be presented similarly to
desktop and mobile visitors.
• Mobile App.
A mobile app is an application that is downloaded
and installed on to a user’s mobile
device – perfect for gaming, banking, personalization
and when you want something
unique that uses your phone’s functionality
like the camera or GPS. However, a mobile
app is not accessed via the internet unless the
app is already installed on the user’s mobile
device, and can be deleted on a device. A
separate app also needs to be developed for
the different devices (iPhone vs. Android) so
it can get very costly to develop and maintain.
Find out if your website is mobile-friendly
by taking the Google Mobile Friendly test
today at www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly.
Manz is director of digital marketing at
Mannix Marketing.
Photo Courtesy Mannix Marketing