Make Your Website Mobile Responsive with a Retrofit, Mobile Specific Site, or Responsive Redesign

Mobile browsing is on the rise. In fact, a 2014 comScore study found that for the first time, the majority of digital media consumption was through mobile apps, rather than desktop browsers. Add in the popularity of tablets (which have completely different needs), and this means that companies need to be prepared with a site that’s responsive. But what does that mean for your existing site?

Often, clients aren’t sure if their existing site necessarily needs a complete overhaul, or if it can just be retrofitted for responsiveness. And the answer is: It’s up to them.

At efelle, we offer three distinct services to ensure our clients’ website is ready for mobile and tablet users. We can:

1. Create an entirely new site that’s fully responsive from the very beginning, or
2. Update your existing site with a responsive addition that maintains the existing character, but creates a functional mobile experience, regardless of the device your viewer is using
3. Build an additional, mobile-specific website that launches when a viewer is on their phone or tablet.

Each of these options has its own benefits. To decide what’s best for you and your business, consider the following information:

Start From Scratch With A New Site

A responsive website adapts the elements of the site, including text, icons and imagery, to the size of the device used to access the site. At efelle, we know viewers often approach sites from mobile devices, which means that when we build a website from scratch, we always build these features in.

This is a great option for several reasons:

• Websites age, and customers notice. Best practices, aesthetics, and image preferences change over time, and if your website hasn’t been updated in a while, it may be losing business. Customers judge websites quickly, regardless of what device they’re on.
• New functionalities can mean conversions. With an all-new website, you can finally create the blog or photo gallery or online shopping experience you’ve always wanted. Plus, you’ll get all of the added SEO benefits of a site that’s optimized for search.
• You won’t have to think about it again for a while. Building an all-new, responsive site is an investment. Instead of retrofitting now and then redesigning later, we can handle it all at once.

If you’re unhappy with your existing site and would like to do a complete re-launch, we can absolutely make it happen—and make sure that when we do it, your users will never have to pinch, pull, or drag to view all of the content on the site.

Retrofit Your Site For Responsiveness

If you’ve recently redesigned your site, or are generally happy with its look and feel, you may opt to simply add in the necessary changes to make it ready for mobile viewing. This is a less expensive and quicker option, and can be done without disrupting visitors to the site.

Here’s why a responsiveness retrofit is a good idea, even if you already love your website:

• Customers expect and respect mobile-ready sites. Way back in 2012, a study found that the majority of customers—72%—expect a website to be optimized for mobile viewing. That number has only increased with the popularity of mobile viewing, which means you want your site to be ready when customers arrive.
• Mobile users convert. Searches on a mobile phone result in conversions 17% more often than on a desktop, according to comScore. Investing in responsiveness is also an investment in your revenue.
• Google rewards responsiveness. If you’re trying to improve your SEO, responsiveness is a great way to do it. Google rewards sites that are optimized for mobile viewing, which means you’ll be more visible.

Sometimes, just adding the necessarily features, like flexible images sizes and scalable text, to an existing website, is a great choice for your business—and we can make it so.

Follow Browsing Trends By Going Mobile-Specific

While all of our websites are mobile-friendly, mobile-specific sites offer clients another option to meet users on their level, with or without touching the look and feel of an existing site. This may seem strange, but it’s actually growing into a pretty popular trend; many websites have a completely different (but still on-brand) mobile viewing and reading experience.

This add-on is a great option by itself, but can also be built into a total site redesign. Some benefits of a mobile-specific site include:

• Your site will work more like an app. Big buttons, limited scrolling, quick navigation, and faster load-times make mobile-specific sites look and behave more like an app, which improves the user experience exponentially.
• It doesn’t require any extra work. Having a separate site may sound like you’ll need to do everything twice, but you won’t; the CMS automatically pushes updates from your desktop website to your mobile site in real-time, so both sites are always up-to-date.

Whichever option you chose, the most important thing to remember is that mobile viewing matters, and that addressing it sooner, rather than later, is one of the savviest marketing moves you can make.

Interested In Responsive Web Design?

efelle creative is an award winning, Seattle based web marketing firm that specializes in website design and development, website content management, search engine optimization, and other online marketing services. Since 2005, efelle has worked with hundreds of businesses to help them with their web development needs. Call us at 206.384.4909 or fill out our online contact form to get in touch with a custom web design specialist.