@bluebeetleHQ

Did you know that there is a difference between a mobile-friendly site and a mobile-responsive site? People unwittingly tend to interchange these terms; however, they mean quite the opposite.

What is the difference?

Mobile-friendly sites are designed to look good and be functional on desktops and only be functional on mobile. The desktop version of the site is shrunken to fit on a mobile screen; however, the site is difficult to use as it is not reformatted to suit a mobile screen. The entire website is usually shown on the top part of your mobile phone, and the bottom part is merely a white space. You would need to zoom in to be able to read the text or use the buttons properly and scroll sideways to read all the text.

Mobile-responsive sites are designed to look good and be functional on desktops and mobile screens. Therefore the site is reformatted to reproduce what a user would see on a desktop each time the size of the screen changes. So instead of shrinking everything down, text and clickable items are enlarged, and pictures are resized to look professional on all screen sizes. There are also more benefits of using a mobile-responsive site, such as faster loading times as the site is optimised for that screen size.

Why would anyone use a mobile-friendly site and not a responsive one instead? In some cases, if you have a funnel for people using a mobile, such as a mobile app, then using a mobile-friendly site can help deter people from browsing on their phones and motivate them to use the app instead.