Mobile

Mobile Website Vs. Responsive Design

July 24, 2013 | 2 minutes to read
Summary:Why you need your Website to be Mobile-Compatible? It is becoming more and more challenging for businesses to …

Why you need your Website to be Mobile-Compatible?

It is becoming more and more challenging for businesses to keep with the ever-changing internet landscape. With Google changing their search guidelines to make the search results better, businesses having a hard time keeping up with their website management.

Now, with an increasing number of users browsing the internet & searching for products & services from mobile devices, it is vital for businesses to have a presence on mobile platforms. This is going to require your website to be Mobile-Compatible. Another thing to worry about managing their online presence.

 

Stand-alone Mobile Website or Responsive Design?

 

Now that you are ready to build a mobile website, you have to decide whether to build a stand-alone mobile website or to go with a responsive design. Both options will offer a better user experience while browsing from their mobile devices. However, in order to choose the right option for your business, you need to understand the differences between the two options.

Here are some major pros and cons that you can weigh in on for the 2 options.

Stand-alone Mobile Website

Responsive Mobile Website

Design Design can be unique to give users a better user experience & content can be tailored to sync with the content on the main website The design has to be worked around to be able to sync with the content on the main website
Domain You have to create a different domain, such as m.yourdomain.com You can keep the same domain URL as your main website
Mobile Specific Features Offers flexibility to design mobile user needs such as e-commerce, app downloads, etc. You have to work-around the features that are available on the main website. May not offer a unique user experience
Content Updates You have to manage content separately from the main website Content is synced with the main website. You have to update the content once
Development Cost The site can be created quickly since it’s stand-alone & has no dependency on the main website. More affordable Takes longer & more expensive to create a responsive design, since you are creating another version main website for mobile users
Optimization The site has to be optimized separately from the main web site. If you have optimized the main site, the same will carry over to the mobile site. No additional efforts required for optimizing the site
User Experience Offers better user experience with unique design and content tailored specifically for mobile users User can access the same content as on the main website, not necessarily what they would like to see on the mobile version

 

Conclusion

A recent trend has been to use responsive design because of easy maintenance (one site, one version of the content) & also being search ready once the main site is optimized for search engines. However, you have to look at your business goals for the mobile websites in terms of “How is your prospect/client going to use the mobile website” & design it accordingly. There is no one solution that fits all.

If you need help in finding the right solution for your mobile site, feel free to Contact Us.

About the Author

Kalpana Murthy, President/CEO at WSI Plano, DBA Kriti Web Solutions, LLC. is a Digital Strategist, Consultant, Speaker/Trainer, & Software Engineer who is passionate about bringing affordable technology solutions to businesses to build online presence. Kalpana Murthy is a certified partner with Google, HubSpot, Sharp Spring, SEMRush and other digital solution providers.

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