Having a mobile friendly website is one of the most important things you can do for your business. An increasing number of your customers are accessing your website from a mobile device. If you don’t provide a satisfying user experience, your business could dry up. It’s a harsh reality many businesses are facing right now, but trust us when we tell you, there’s no way out of this one!  So, let us school you on the ways of the mobile optimized website. You can’t afford to miss this post.

What is a mobile optimized website?

A mobile optimized website is made specifically for the smaller screen size of a mobile device like a tablet or a smartphone. In the past, mobile sites were mostly just text and links since cellular phone browsers were not capable of displaying a full website. Now, with more people accessing the web on the go, technology has caught up. Most phones and tablets today have browsers that are capable of showing websites the same way a desktop computer does.

Because only the style of the site changes based on the device, mobile optimized sites use the same code as the desktop site. That means that if a viewer is using your website from a phone, tablet or desktop, they will have the same experience. Users won’t have to pinch and scroll left and right to read your site since it will automatically load the site to fit the viewer’s screen size. 

A mobile optimized website is designed with mobile users in mind so that they can have the same experience using your site without sacrificing quality or content.

Why is designing a mobile optimized site different?

Traditionally, the layout of a website is designed to fit the screen size of a desktop or laptop computer. A mobile optimized site requires some extra layout design so that aesthetics and usability are not sacrificed due to a smaller screen. For example, since users don’t use a mouse or keyboard to help navigate, designers need to spend extra time laying out buttons, boxes and other site elements so that the site still looks good and is easy to use.

The goal of a mobile design is to provide a thoughtful experience to all users, regardless of screen size.

Why is coding a mobile optimized site different?

Mobile optimized sites need additional code that will detect the size of the device that is accessing them. Once the screen size is detected, the site will load the right layout so that it fits the screen. The additional code tells the website what size it needs to be and makes adjustments so that it fits and functions well.

Mobile optimization requires extra code and extra time to test because it has to work on different sized screens.

If my site is not mobile optimized, will it not work on mobile devices?

Non-mobile optimized sites will work on mobile devices, however they will not be as easy to use or look as good. For example, your site may appear shrunken, cut off or have barely legible text. Some technologies like Flash or Silverlight will not load on a mobile device.

A mobile optimized site is the best way to ensure that you are accessible to all of your users on any device.

Now that you know what a mobile optimized website is, next week we’ll spend some time looking at the difference in appearance of a mobile optimized website and one that is not. We’ll also share some interesting statistics with you and talk about what happens when a mobile user becomes frustrated using a website that is not mobile optimized.