At IndiaWebmediaPro Technologies we strive to build websites that are optimized for mobile and have worked with many new clients to update older sites for mobile-friendliness. While we have written blog posts in the past that outline the importance of mobile optimization for modern websites, there is still a wealth of confusion over what it means to have a mobile site, how they are built, and what design approach they use. Let’s review key mobile-related terms and what they mean for you.

Mobile Friendly

Any site that has been optimized to make it easy to use on mobile devices is considered mobile-friendly. This often includes larger, touchscreen-friendly buttons, optimized images, click-to-call phone numbers, and content formatted for easy reading on a small screen.

Mobile-First

This isn’t a concrete entity but rather a state of mind that guides how a site is designed and built. With mobile-first design, a mobile version of a website is created first, and enhancements are made to the desktop version later.

Adaptive

Adaptive sites use unique page layouts for different devices. When users access the website, servers detect the type of device and loads content appropriately for the configured page layout. This is often used to make older sites more mobile-friendly.

Responsive

Responsive design enables websites to adjust styling based on the screen size of the device being used. It does not require separate page layouts for different device sizes and is the current standard in mobile optimization.

M-Dot

When the mobile revolution took off, many websites created separate mobile sites with a different URL starting in the m-dot prefix. Users are redirected to the m-dot (http://m.domain.com) site, which offers fewer pages, simple navigation, and less content. With the rise of responsive development benefits, m-dot has become a less desired solution.

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Navigating the terminology of the mobile design world can be tricky. Whether you are building a website, application, or a game, appearance has a great impact on both popularity and usability, so it is essential to understand the process as it is taking place. The mobile web is here to stay and having a mobile website that provides the right approach to the mobile user experience brings success!

An application, often referred to as an app, is a program designed for use on a mobile device. Most people use apps everyday and the growing popularity is pushing businesses towards jumping on the app bandwagon. While not every business needs an app, it is an increasing trend that requires a lot of time and understanding. If you do decide to create an application, you must select which type offers the best combination of functionality and cost. Let’s explore how to choose the best app for your business.

Native Apps

These are designed to run on a specific mobile operating system and are downloaded to the device from an app store. Since they are built with programming language specific to the operating system, separate apps must be built for each device type. The upside to native apps is that they generally work faster and more efficiently. They can store data securely on the device and once downloaded, the app icon is displayed on the device’s home screen. Unfortunately, these apps tend to be more expensive to develop.

Web Apps

Web applications are built using the same programming language as a website, and is accessible to anyone who has web access. They deliver an app-like user experience without the need to develop a fully native application. The upside to these types of apps is that they have the same user interface across multiple devices, making for a uniform experience. They tend to be easier to maintain and support and have no restrictions on running ads, charging for subscriptions, or collecting membership fees. Since they are not available in the app store, users may have difficulty finding them.

Hybrid Apps

When you combine a native app with a web app, you get a hybrid app. They are built with web-based code components, but unlike a web app, it is able to access device-specific hardware and features. Similar to native apps, hybrid apps are distributed through an app store. They tend to be faster to develop since they use a single web-based code for both iOS and Android, and offer a consistent user interface across all devices. The one downside is their performance, which is highly inferior to a native app.

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According to comScore, nearly 40% of American mobile subscribers accessed downloaded apps over a one-month period. Smartphones add portability, location targeting, and other cutting-edge enhancements. IndiaWebmediaPro Technologies is the leading provider in innovative solutions with a focus on helping companies promote products and services while reaching consumers.

Mobile applications have officially taken over. The future of mobile application development promises to see the continuing emergence of new, cutting-edge techniques and tools accompanied by growth in traditional technologies. New developments encompass the “mobile first” concept paired by enterprise mobility. Let’s take a look at the top trends shaping mobile development.

Augmented Reality

While augmented reality has long sounded like a wildly futuristic concept, there has been a huge boom in the availability of these apps. Most won’t forget the Pokémon GO phenomenon that hit last summer. It required users to go out into the world, walk around, and catch Pokémon through utilizing GPS to mark the location. Another great example of this technology is WallaMe, which allows users to leave hidden messages in various locations around the world that can only be read by other people using the app.

Artificial Intelligence

Although the first thing individuals tend to think of when they hear AI is robots taking over society and subsequently jobs. For our discussion’s sake, we are going to focus on how it can incorporate various interfaces into mobile applications. For example, Amazon Lex Integration helps coders create a chat bot conversational interface. Other smart apps can include a thinking component that processes the context and location of the person and make recommendations.

Composed Vs. Coded

Moving forward, rather than hand-coding mobile applications, there are predictions that apps will be composed by mixing and matching reusable APIs. Digital business professionals are now being forced to offer mobile experiences that depend on partners, pull mobile in-house, and operate as synced teams to build better customer experiences. Apps will be composed instead of coded to break the monolithic models currently used today.

Serverless Apps

As a natural fit for cloud computing, serverless computing is a development approach that will impact mobile development. One such company, AWS (Amazon Web Services), has already hopped on the bandwagon, providing enhancements for mobile back-end functionality such as user authentication, data storage, push notifications, and content delivery.

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There will be a wealth of trends that will continue to shape mobile development. Ordinary business users will soon be able to create their own enterprise apps utilizing low-code development tools. Regardless, mobile development is an all-encompassing task best left to professionals. IndiaWebmediaPro Technologies specializes in mobile design and development geared towards the ever changing technological advances that are beginning to shift.

Responsive website design is now essential for any company’s online presence. This includes an easy-to-use interface for product and service retail. Responsive eCommerce platforms must work across all devices, as it has now become the norm for individuals to make purchases on not only desktops, but also tablets and phones. Mobile sales have skyrocketed over the last decade, so ensure that you are making your mobile checkout process is seamless and representing your brand in the best way possible.

According to Trinity Digital Marketing, over 1.2 billion people access the web from their mobile devices. That’s a large market to cater to. Furthermore, MoPowered conducted a study, which showed that 30% of mobile shoppers abandon transactions if their experience is not optimized for a user-friendly mobile experience. If you think in terms of sales, the loss in revenue adds up quickly. Ultimately, this means that designers need to work on responsive designs and master mobile eCommerce.

Through building better eCommerce websites, a business can help provide customers with better experiences. One way this can be accomplished is through learning the ins and outs of various eCommerce frameworks. Take your current design for a test run to see how well it is optimized to work on various devices, as well as the ease in which consumers can make purchases.

Additionally, there is an even greater push for designers to take on a mobile-first approach. If you start with a constrained size, it forces you to think about what really matters to users. Remember that it is easier to start small and work up than build a large site and eliminate content for smaller devices. This forces designers to think of simple solutions and ultimately improve user experience.

There are many companies who have failed to build responsive eCommerce websites. A website designer is valuable in the process of creating a user-friendly, fast-loading, mobile eCommerce website. Don’t just focus your energy on redesigning old websites to make them compatible with the increase in mobile shoppers. Ensure that any new websites will be able to easily incorporate eCommerce functionality.

Mobile devices have taken over desktops, making it necessary for designers to keep mobile components in mind. Website design should be thought of with mobile features in mind first, as it is easier to scale up than scale a desktop down. Unfortunately, many designers are faced with the challenge of adapting existing desktop designs to a mobile platform. Let’s review what adjustments should be made when designing for small screens.

Minimalism

Having a website with a minimalistic design helps with usability and simple navigation. This component is especially important when it comes to mobile. Get rid of any information or features that are not essential to the mobile user experience.

Navigation Design

A menu icon comprised with horizontal line segments piled on top of each other is the best solution for downscaling navigation from desktops to mobile. Whereas most desktop sites have options horizontally laid out across the homepage.

Single Columns

A layout that contains a single column can help ease mobile usability as it can eliminate horizontal scrolling. Users can simply scroll down to read versus back and forth. This is especially beneficial when converting desktop sites that have a lot of information being displayed across multiple columns.

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In today’s age, it is essential for website designers to design for mobile. This means making specific adjustments for small screens. While this is most easily done when a website is initially developed, it can also be accomplished when converting a desktop website to mobile. Don’t limit your potential visitors because your website doesn’t have a user-friendly mobile design. Contact professionals at IndiaWebmediaPro Technologies to help with all your website development and design needs.

Mobile usage continues to rise and is now surpassing the number of desktop users. This means that website designers must create a site that can be utilized across a variety of platforms. With the increase in consumers purchasing both products and services online, as well as communicating away from the confines of their desk or home, the design focus must be on mobile user experience.

A great way to ensure a satisfactory user experience is through focusing on mobile navigation. Seamless navigation enables consumers to easily find what they are looking for and subsequently leads to more conversions. Overall, great mobile navigation is based on what you include in the main menu. Since screen space is minimal on mobile devices, you must pick and choose what will be displayed.

Including a search feature should be an essential as it allows users to quickly find what they are looking for. Since many elements that are on a traditional website homepage will be eliminated, a search feature can ensure that consumers will be able to still find all necessary information. This is typically at the top of the screen for ease of access.

A home icon is also an essential component that should be included on mobile navigation as it gives users a direct overview of the most important content. Furthermore, home icons can help individuals reorient themselves if they would like to get back to the main page.

A share button has now become a key feature of mobile websites, as social media sharing is even more popular on mobile devices than desktops. This can help with your social media marketing efforts and ultimately increase conversion rates. Whether you choose a standard share icon or utilize each individual social media button, it should be in an easily accessible location.

In general, you want to ensure that your mobile navigation design does not include too many choices. When it comes to mobile, less is better. People want instant gratification, so if your website fails to give users what they want, they will seek out a better experience elsewhere. Mobile navigation is a hot topic right now and must be addressed appropriately. IndiaWebmediaPro Technologies can help you design with both purpose and precision in order to provide the best user experience.

Mobilegeddon is part of the popular lexicon to describe Google’s updated search algorithm. It is also a wakeup call for examining the mobile traffic side of business and the importance of setting up a mobile site or a responsive website as mobile device usage surges.

What’s it all about?

Google changed its search algorithm to favor sites that look good on smartphones. Websites that work better on smartphones lead to more mobile sales. When businesses sell more products/services on phones, they pay more for clicks to smartphone friendly sites. Clicks on smartphones are now as important as desktop clicks. Google has taken notice and is doing all it can to encourage them.

The force of Google is like the force of law. Now that it has set the rule for mobile friendly search, businesses will comply either because of threat of penalty (e.g., losing mobile traffic and ranking in search results) or because they see benefit to themselves (e.g., gaining higher conversion rates on mobile friendly sites).

The Consequences

Googlebot judgment day was April 21, 2015. Since the mobile algorithm’s release, SEO experts say that some businesses have lost ranking, traffic, and authority for pages not configured to be mobile friendly. The initial impact has been modest and only affects mobile traffic searches. If you are a small business and little of your customer traffic comes from smartphones, it might be insignificant. Websites aren’t being obliterated from Google search for not being mobile friendly. But you won’t sit as high in search results as compared to competitors that have a smartphone responsive website, which means your leads and revenues could be affected and degrade, if not today, then soon.

Mobilegeddon, if not an imminent threat, is an opportunity. A responsive website is Google’s preferred way to get a “mobile friendly” label in search results on smartphones. Responsive sites serve the same HTML and URL to any device, making it easier to track site traffic no matter how users choose to visit. Responsive templates and small changes (avoiding Flash, unplayable videos, blocked image files) may lead to big increases in new search rankings.

Even if you aren’t worried about mobile traffic today, it is a certainty that more users will go mobile in the future, so it may be worthwhile to make the mobile update now to better serve future customers.

The invention of smart phones has completely revolutionized the way people live and communicate. When friends meet for coffee and have a discussion, the moment something is questioned, either party can pull out their phone, perform a quick search, and find the information they need almost instantly. This sort of ‘information on the go’ mindset has become a standard part of day to day life in the world today, and has had a phenomenal influence on the business world. If a consumer sees an item he or she is interested in, but isn’t sure about paying the marked price, a quick search from a smart phone can help compare prices and allow them to see whether it can be bought online for a discount. In order to survive in the business world of today, you have to make your business go mobile.

Ensure Your Website is Mobile Friendly

Most websites are difficult to navigate on a mobile device, since they were designed for mouse and keyboard use. Even websites that have mobile versions are not always the easiest to navigate because of their design limitations. By taking the time to ensure your site is mobile friendly, or hiring someone with programming experience to build you a mobile friendly site, you can cater to an untapped market right on the brink of its explosion.

Responsive Web Design

Designing your online presence to work with mobile devices is essential in succeeding in today’s business world. Many companies have taken this a step further by having specially designed web applications that allow users to shop without the need of a web browser. In addition, responsive web design allows you to customize the content displayed to browsers based on their locations.

PC vs. Mobile

Estimates have predicted that more searches for products and content will be conducted via mobile device than by PC as early as 2015. Mobile searches make up 40% of Google’s web traffic at present, and that number is only expected to increase as sales of smart phones skyrocket.

The Importance of SEO

If your website is not optimized for search engines, now is the time to make it so. Optimizing for specific keywords ensures that your page will appear in the results, bringing large amounts of organic traffic and increasing sales in ways that normal marketing could only dream of doing. SEO is a concept that is taught for online marketers, but the business world has not caught on to its importance for mobile sales yet. By optimizing now, and aiming your page at the mobile market, you stand the change of being one of the pioneers in this area of business, which can result in enormous profits.

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Mobile browsing is the future of business, and those that take advantage of the calm before the storm will be those that reap the traffic, and most importantly, the profits. Make sure you’re in that group; take the time now to make sure your business goes mobile, and sit back as the profits pour in.

If you think about how much time you spend online each day via a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet, it should come as no surprise that there is a high need for mobile-friendly websites. While mobile usage has skyrocketed in the last few years, many businesses have been slow to jump on the bandwagon.

The use of mobile devices has become the norm, enabling individuals to stay connected to the digital world and manage responsibilities without being tied down to their desk. According to Pew Research Center, 25 percent of all smartphone owners conduct most of their online browsing on their mobile phone. Furthermore, a third of retailers report that over 20 percent of their traffic comes from the mobile web.

Responsive web design is now on the rise in response to this increasing trend, allowing IndiaWebmediaPro Technologies. website developers to adapt your current layout without removing mass amounts of content. Businesses are no longer burdened with creating two independent websites and can now develop a single responsive website that adapts and accommodates to all devices. The top advantages of using responsive design include:

• An increase in online conversions.
• Lower cost than developing separate sites for desktop and mobile usage.
• Consistent user experience across varied devices.
• Higher ranking and more search traffic.

Google is a significant advocate for responsive website design stating that it “keeps desktop and mobile content on a single URL, making it easier for users to interact with, share, and link to.” Furthermore, Google is able to discover content more efficiently and assign indexing properties. If you are ready to provide a mobile-friendly platform for your website, contact IndiawebmediaPro Technologies and allow us to accommodate your online business and individual needs.