Mobile and responsive designs have been the talk of web designers and marketers for years. In April of 2015, Google made mobile-friendliness an official ranking factor in its search algorithm to encourage websites to use mobile or responsive design. In the battle between responsive and mobile sites, the winner is whichever site works best for your business.
A mobile site is better if:
- Your customers mostly use mobile devices. At this point, smartphones and tablets are standard tools for communication. If your customers show a heavy bias towards mobile devices, you’re probably safe to use a mobile site.
- Your budget is limited. While mobile sites aren’t cheap, they don’t require as much money or testing as responsive sites. So if your budget is a little tight, and you don’t think you’ll need responsive design in the future, go with a mobile site for your company.
On the other hand, a responsive site is better if:
- You regularly update your site. If you don’t have a way to quickly update your mobile and desktop sites at the same time, responsive design is your solution. Whether you’re adding new pages or creating blog posts, regular updates are just easier when you have a responsive site.
- You’re redesigning your site. As your site gets older and harder to manage, it might be easier to start from scratch. And if you’re going back to the drawing board, you might as well make one site that can work on any device in the world!
With all of these qualities in mind, you can quickly choose whether you want to use a mobile or responsive site for your business.
