While discussing your upcoming project requirement with the best web design company in India, the first consideration will be whether to opt for a mobile-first approach. Mobile-first is now an established trend for building a business website. In 2010, Google introduced its first mobile-first strategy, and since then, the transition to a mobile-first model has accelerated immensely.
What is Mobile-First Design?
In the Mobile-first approach, the web designers are tasked with the responsibility of designing a product for the mobile first. A sketch or prototype of a web application is created for the mobile screen. After focusing on the smallest screen, i.e., mobile, the designers move to larger screen sizes.
Taking a mobile-first approach makes sense because a smaller screen offers less space for all the elements of the web application. However, the designers work to ensure that the website's key elements are available on a mobile device's limited screen. In this process, the team of designers and developers from your selected web design company in India remove any excess element which doesn't add value to the mobile website.
Why is the mobile-first paradigm on the rise?
This is a period of time when every person spends a considerable amount of time on their smartphones and tablets. This is why more businesses are partnering with the top web designing companies in India to get a responsive, mobile-friendly website.
When we look at how people use the Internet on mobile devices compared to desktop computers, a research company called BroadbandSearch found some interesting information. In 2016, about 51.3% of web traffic came from mobile users. By 2019, this number had increased to 53%. Even though more web traffic, about 56.7%, still came from desktop computers in that same year, it's clear that mobile Internet use is steadily growing and might become even more popular than desktop use in the future.
The study also discovered that mobile users spend about 90% of their online time using apps specifically designed for mobile devices. This shows just how important mobile apps have become in our daily lives, hence the need for a mobile-first paradigm.
In this blog, we will discover the pros and cons of a mobile-first paradigm! This will provide you with clarity on your next project with the best web design company in India.
Pros of the Mobile-First Paradigm
Every coin has two sides to it. Similarly, the mobile-first approach also has its list of pros and cons. Firstly, let's check out some of the significant benefits of such an approach-
Reach out to the majority
Desktop superiority is gone, and most internet users are constantly connected with their smartphones. As per the best web design company in India, the ground rule of marketing is to be present where your target customers are. This reinstates the importance of a mobile-first approach, as over 50% of internet users are browsing sites with their phones. Now it all makes sense why optimizing the website for a responsive mobile experience is essential.
Reduced Bugs
Mobile websites attain simplicity due to their minimal coding structure in contrast to desktop sites. When you begin optimizing a desktop website for a mobile experience, you'll need to reorganize the complex codes on the mobile site. This might lead to a lot of bugs because of the transition. This is why starting with a mobile-first approach will save time and reduce unwanted bugs on the site.
Building a website for mobile means you will start off with mobile responsiveness of the website as your primary goal. The best web design company in India ensures that the simple code for mobile remains the same even when "progressive enhancement" is taken up for the mobile website.
Priority of Content
As designers are cramped with space in a mobile-friendly website, the content is organized in terms of priority. As there is less space, only the most essential elements of the websites are kept on the mobile site. This helps to reduce fluff, eliminate distractions and focus on generating a user action on the website.
Search Engine Optimization
It is known that having more content on the website will take longer for the site to load. If you start by building a desktop website, cramping the content into a mobile-friendly site will be troublesome. Plus, all the content of the desktop site will make the page loading speed of the mobile site a lot slower.
This is why the top web designing companies in India often suggest starting with a mobile-first approach. A mobile-first approach helps limit the content on every page; in return, there's a significant improvement in page-loading speed. Even a second's delay leads to a drop in conversion rates by 7%. The page loading speed is a significant factor that Google considers when ranking a website, and a mobile-first approach will help the SEO cause immensely.
Best Practices by Top Web Designing Companies in India
Mobile-first indexing is a process by which Google indexes and ranks a mobile version of a website. Here are some of the best practices to follow as per Google-
- It's essential to ensure that Google can easily access and display your content on desktop and mobile versions of your website. This means making sure your mobile page content and resources are accessible to Google as well. When it comes to the technical details, it's a good idea to use the same robots meta tags on both your mobile and desktop sites. Suppose you happen to use different tags, especially ones like "noindex" or "nofollow" on the mobile version. In that case, Google could encounter difficulty when crawling and indexing your page, especially if your site is configured for mobile-first indexing.
- If your website utilizes structured data, it's crucial to ensure its availability on both the desktop and mobile versions. Here are a few critical points to consider: First, ensure that the structured data is consistent across your mobile and desktop sites. If you need to choose which structured data types to include on your mobile site, focus on adding Breadcrumb, Product, and VideoObject structured data. Secondly, be certain that the URLs in your structured data are accurate.
- Make sure to use high-quality images on the site. Also, ensure the same alt tags across both your mobile and desktop website.
- Ads placement can hinder the indexing and ranking of your website. Check the placement of the ads and reorganize the same so that it doesn’t occupy much space. If ads take up too much space at the top of your website, it leads to a bad user experience!
Cons of a Mobile-First Design Approach
While the plethora of benefits are never ending for mobile-first designs, there are certain cons as well. Let’s check them out-
Not An Easy Nut To Crack
In an honest opinion, most web design & development company accept that while the mobile-first design approach is great, it’s complex too! Creating a worthy user experience demands a unique approach to thinking and planning the design. Finding the right balance between eager and lazy loading content along with a great design is a challenging task indeed.
High Training Time & Cost
If you set out to create a website with the mobile-first approach, there are costs that will accompany you. Getting a team for the gig and training them to deliver you the best mobile-friendly website is time-consuming and fund-draining. Choosing the best website development company in Kolkata is recommended for such instances. An experienced team from the best web design company in India will minimize these hurdles seamlessly.
Small Canvas for Creativity
When employing the best web design company in India for your mobile-first approach project, the canvas to showcase creativity is smaller. Designers & developers have a small space in which they have to build the website with simple code and limited elements. This is a roadblock when it comes to going bonkers with creativity in the design. However, skilled professionals working with the best web design company in India have the expertise to create magic even on such a limited canvas.
Mobile-first Design- When to Choose and Avoid
While it solely depends on the specific requirement of a particular project, here are some of the broad recommendations for you-
When to Choose-
- A simple user flow
- Mobile-first-oriented industry trend
- On-the-go use of the website
When to Avoid-
- Desktop is the primary use device for the product/service
- A complex user flow
- Industry user data shows a high desktop-site preference
Choosing a mobile-first approach is essential when discussing your project with the best web design company in India. Now that you know all the pros and cons of such an approach, you need to make a decision as per your industry and requirements. The market for mobile-friendly websites is all set to increase in the future as per trends so make the decision wisely.
India's top web development companies have the expertise you need to sail smoothly in this pursuit! A wise partnership with the right web design company in India will ensure a successful and impactful mobile-first design strategy. To find out which is the best web design company in India, check out the Clutch ratings and customer testimonials on the company's official website.
All the best!
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