Why adapting your website
to mobile devices ?

Why adapting your website to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets ?

Here are two indisputable reasons :

• The cellphone visitors now represent more than 50% of the visitors of a website.

The mobile use now skyrockets ! Recent surveys demonstrate that the flow coming from mobile devices concerns up to 60 % of the Internet users during the Week End. To put it concretely, 6 visitors out of 10 visit your website from a mobile device.

• Google downgrades websites not compatible to the mobile devices.

For the first time of its history, Google detailed its algorithm's updating. Referencing specialists have called it : "Mobilegeddon". The impact occurred on the 21st of April, 2015. Its consequences were violent for some websites, such as Le Bon Coin, which could have lost 34% of its traffic seemingly overnight, being 34% of its turnover. Google's statement is unambiguous : "From the 21st of April, 2015, we will extend the use of the mobile compatibility as a classification criterion. This change will affect (...) our research results.

This is not finished ! Google wishes to strike again in June 2016, in order to favour the Mobile friendly websites' posting.

In other terms, if you don't wish to lose 50 % of your Internet users and potentially 50% of your turnover, transform rapidly your website into a Mobile Friendly website.

How transforming your website into a Mobile Friendly website ?

A Mobile Friendly website will be compatible to the browsing from a smartphone or a tablet. It will propose a browsing compatible to the screen's length and organise the contents in order to make it readable.

Two methods to transform your website into a Mobile friendly website :

• Having a mobile website

This involves creating a new version of the website especially dedicated to mobile devices. It leads to :

• A new dedicated conception

• A new name of domain (or lower-domain)

• A new dedicated technical maintenance

• Updating of the contents

Speaking simply, you create an independent second version of your website which doubles work and costs at every level. We don't recommend !

• Having a responsive design website

The most popular and efficient method is to conceive and adapt your website so as it becomes responsive design.

This means that the website is automatically compatible to the screen resolution of the terminal from which it is viewed. Besides, it has to respect a certain amount of rules.

By choosing that method, you invest in future as your website will be able to be compatible to every existing device, present and to come : televisions, watches, and other media not already invented...

Other elements have to be watched and other technologies have to be avoided

Some websites conceptions's technologies and methods have to be proscribed, because they are hard to take by mobile devices.

Here are the principle elements to keep a close eye on :

Don't use the Flash technology

This technology is often used to create advanced graphic effects on a website. The problem is that technology is hard to take by mobile devices. The Internet user will therefore have a blank space or an error message in the place of your contents. Besides, Google will estimate that your website is not Mobile Friendly.

The solution simply consists on replacing your flash contents by a compatible technology, such as html5 for instance, or by fix contents, like a pictures.

Don't use any flash player

Some websites, of old generation, use what is called flash players. This is a technology which enables you to read videos on a website.

Impact on the Internet user : there will be a blank space or an error message, and again, Google will consider the website is not mobile friendly.

The solution is simple. Host your videos on free platforms like You Tube or Dailymotion. Vimeo platform is also a solution but it is charged. Each of these platforms will communicate to you a snatch of code, to place on your website, which will enable your Internet users to watch your videos from every mobile device.

Page background videos

More and more websites contain page background videos. This is the case of the website AirBnB, for instance. In that type of situations, the video has to be replaced by a picture when the website is visualised from a mobile device.

In fact, a video automatically started on a website without preliminary action by an Internet user, will directly increase its the loading time. And this...is not mobile friendly.

The solution is technical but quiet simple for your developer.