Why A Mobile Optimised Site Is Critical To The Success Of Your Business In 2013

The use of mobile devices to access the Internet is expected to significantly grow over 2013 to the point of overtaking desktop browsing. Furthermore the adoption of smartphones such as iPhones and Android devices is unlikely to abate soon in despite of the great rate at which they are being adopted there is still great room for growth with only one billion of the 5 billion mobile phone user's worldwide currently using smartphones.

A mobile friendly website is a website that not only looks good on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets but foremost gives mobile users a pleasant browsing experience. In a mobile friendly website the content is readable without the necessity of pinching and zooming, the content – including media – is not broken so there's no need for a mobile user to scroll horizontally to view content. On a website optimised for mobile buttons are thumb friendly as well. A website optimised for mobile can either have a responsive design or a mobile site.

This really depends on the nature of your business, what your mobile users are looking for, where they're coming from and the type of experience you want to give them. In a responsive design the content is formatted depending on the screen size of the accessing device – smartphone, tablet or desktop – so the website always looks good. However there's an element of compromise in this since the website is developed for desktop users and mobile users. Whereas a mobile site is fully optimised to maximise mobile users experience. For more information please read our article "Responsive Design, Mobile Site or Mobile App?".

The rapid and continuing growth in mobile usage is a reality nobody can deny. As a business you can either adapt or die. You simply cannot ignore the fact there are customers visiting your website from their mobile. And if your business cannot fulfill such basic need they'll simply turn to a competitor instead. It may even damage your brand.

Although we're a young company established in 2012 we've already delivered a number of successful mobile optimised websites either as mobile sites or with responsive design.