Top 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Build a Separate Mobile Website

Today, many people work and access vital information on the move. This has been made possible by a technological revolution that has seen the release of powerful smart phones and portable devices. This means that if you need a website or already have one, you must consider catering for people on mobile devices.

In the past, many businesses were forced to invest in two versions for the same website, the mobile and desktop version. Fortunately, this is not the case today, and this guide will highlight some of the reasons why we should not build separate mobile websites and instead choose responsive web design.

Cost

Of course, it has to start with the cost of development and maintenance. Running two separate but similar websites is expensive. Note that every business owner wants to cut down on operation costs and doing this only increases expenses. Building a mobile specific website requires coding and creation of databases. You will also need more resources to manage it. Furthermore, what would happen if new devices were introduced into the market?

Compromised User Experience

Social media is a priceless tool that businesses have embraced because of the ease with which content can be shared. By building a separate mobile site, links will not be so pretty when shared with desktop users and vice Versa. A mobile user will have to keep scrolling sideways to view a desktop site while a desktop user will only have a small screen layout when accessing a mobile site and this can be quite annoying. In fact, it is likely that both users will navigate away from the page no matter how compelling your content may be.

Weakened SEO Authority

SEO is a great tool that can help your site get better rankings and hence give your brand the visibility that it deserves. However, having two URLs for the website dilutes whatever SEO authority that you may have. This is because many people will forget to establish canonical tags that are necessary during website indexing. Furthermore, link building becomes hard if you have two URLs and this will affect traffic that will be directed to the mobile site.

Embracing mobile web design does not necessarily mean that you must create two different sites. Mobile users are important and can still be taken care of by using responsive web design. This allows your site to respond according to the type of device that the user has which in turn means that you should steer clear of building two websites.

We deal with all aspects of web design for small and medium sized businesses in Hampshire and all over the UK. If you have any questions or would like to know how we can help you or your business get in touch.

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