The world of internet viewing has been shifting – first from desktops to more portable laptops. Now the shift is from desktops/laptops to on-the-go functionality from mobile devices. Your visitors and customers are on the move, and your website needs to accommodate that activity.

Web designers, webmasters, and theme designers have been focused on creating websites that would cross from different computers and screen sizes without hindering the experience. The goal for many years was to have a website that would respond to the device where it was being viewed.

Screens on mobile devices are larger than they have been, but they still require even more adjustment to make websites easier to use for the viewer. This is one of the reasons that Google released the new algorithm designed to award websites that make mobile viewing a better experience.

Mobile-Friendly or Responsive

Responsive designs were crafted to create a pleasant viewing experience. The webpage recognizes the size of the viewing screen and then adjusts to fit that screen. It will also adjust to the orientation of the screen. Responsive makes use of flexible layouts, images, and style sheets. A mobile-friendly website will always be responsive, but all responsive websites are not mobile-friendly.

Simple responsive sites can feel clunky and require more work for the mobile viewer. Although the information is technically available on a responsive site, it is not easy to access for the mobile user and so would not quality as mobile-friendly.

Mobile-friendly websites render content in a manner that is convenient to use and read on mobile devices – including smart phones and tablets. Search options, share buttons, and other navigation features are display in a way that requires less scrolling for the mobile users. Mobile-friendly websites were created to optimize the mobile experience and will often include single screen, single column designs, simple navigations, and reduced images or clutter.

Several major companies designed two websites – one for mobile users and one for desktop/laptop users. This brought along the surge of m. sites. The roll-up to and ultimate release of “mobilegeddon” frowned on this pattern (although Google has said it does not penalize companies that choose to go this route). The goal is to create a website that will know who is watching and from what device and will provide quality and engaging content optimized for that particular device.

You may want to work with a website design specialist to create the best optimized website for your company. Making the shift from responsive to mobile-friendly can have some unique challenges, but in the end it should not be too difficult. The best thing about “mobilegeddon” is the focus on the user. By creating a website friendlier to mobile users, you will be in a position to better meet the needs of those users (and ultimately convert users to customers).

The important thing to remember is that your website can be responsive and not be mobile-friendly, but your website cannot be mobile-friendly and not be responsive. Optimize the mobile experience to insure that your website passes the Google mobile-friendly test.