Let’s first quickly see how a mobile-friendly website is different. If you open a mobile-friendly website on your smartphone, you don’t need to zoom or pinch in order to read the text. On the other hand, if you open a website on your smartphone which is not mobile-friendly, you need to zoom, pinch or scroll horizontally to read the content. You feel a disappointing experience while viewing a website which is not mobile-friendly. Generally, people don’t prefer to stay long on a website which is not mobile-friendly.
Why make a website mobile friendly?
In the USA, 94% of people with smartphones search for local information on their phones. They are more likely to abandon a website if it’s not mobile-friendly.
It is worth mentioning that as of April 21, 2015, Google is officially considering mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor in their search engine ranking algorithm. It means websites which are mobile-friendly tends to rank higher in google’s search results.
So it makes sense that you should make your website mobile-friendly if you want mobile visitors to stay on your website and get your website rank higher in google’s search results.
Is my website mobile friendly?
You can use Google’s mobile-friendly Website Testing Tool to test mobile friendliness of your website. You need to enter URL of your website and click analyze button. This tool analyzes your website and clearly report the mobile friendliness of your website.
How to make your website mobile friendly?
Basically, there are three main techniques to make your website mobile friendly:
| Configuration | Does my URL stay the same? | Does my HTML stay the same? |
|---|---|---|
| Responsive Web Design |  |
|
| Dynamic Serving | |
 |
| Separate URLs | |
|
- Responsive Web Design: It is the magic of CSS media query that the same HTML code is rendered differently on different screen size. The web server serves the same HTML code on the same URL regardless of the users’ device (desktop, tablet, mobile), but it’s CSS code decide how it’s going to be rendered. If your website is a Content Management System (CMS), such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, you can either replace its theme or template with a responsive theme or template or hire a developer to convert existing theme to responsive.
- Dynamic Serving: Uses the same URL regardless of device, but generates a different version of HTML for different device types based on what the server knows about the user’s browser.
- Separate URLs: Serves different code to each device, and on separate URLs. The server detects the users’ device. If the device is detected as a mobile device, it is directed to the mobile site. You have to maintain two versions – mobile version and desktop version, of your website. If your website looks complex on a desktop and you think it should have a more simple look on mobile devices, this technique is better for your website than responsive design.
How much does it cost to build a mobile-friendly website?
The cost to build a mobile friendly website varies and depends on many things. For example, here are some of the possibilities:
- It can be free if you select a responsive theme or template for your website. Almost all the themes and templates are created responsive nowadays.
- It can be free if you have technical skills to make a website.
- It will cost you if you hire a developer and again the cost depends on your website and developer. For some very old sites, it is better to redesign it from scratch rather than converting it mobile friendly. For other sites, the developer can simply convert to mobile friendly.