A mobile friendly web appearance is necessary for any business today. Apart from attracting mobile users, mobile friendliness can also be a major ranking factor according to Google’s 2015 algorithm update. Since then, many website owners have migrated to responsive designs with some adopting a separate mobile site. Both are viable options, but you need to understand the differences between them and choose the most suitable option for your business.
A responsive site is coded in a way that it fits all types of devices, be it a desktop, mobile or a tablet. The tailored code lets your website resize perfectly when it is displayed. It gives an optimal viewing experience by using the same domain name. Along with this, its back-end code detects the dimensions of a screen and responds immediately. It means that you can make even the small changes perfectly visible to all three types of devices just by updating the main site.
A mobile site may can have the exact look of your main website or it can be designed differently. Where it differs from responsive design is that it uses a different domain name than the actual site and requires separate maintenance. A mobile site loads faster than a normal site and more importantly, it gets preferred by Google when searched using a mobile device. It also lets you create a unique experience for mobile users.
Responsive designs are generally preferred by most website owners because they don’t require any spate maintenance. But if your business is mobile centric and you get a lot of mobile visitors daily, then you should start thinking about creating a mobile site as it will allow for more optimized content to your users and make it easy for them to find your business.