The Difference Between Responsive Design and Mobile Optimized

Mobile is becoming an increasingly significant medium in our lives with ever more powerful devices and faster wireless connections enabling enjoyable experiences for most of the US Population.

Half of Facebook's users are now Mobile Only and more than half of their revenue comes from mobile users.

As such, optimizing your website or message for mobile is becoming increasingly important especially at the local level. But it's even more than that because Facebook represents a significant share of traffic for local sites - or at least it must if you're going to have a thriving and engaged community who shares your content with their friends - which means a significant amount of your traffic is going to be mobile.

Responsive Web Design is (Almost) Synonymous with Mobile Optimized

Fortunately, there's an approach to web design called Responsive Design. It's an ingenious approach wherein the content re-organizes and resizes based on the size of the display - yes, a website knows what device/browser/operating system/screensize you have etc but the standard responsive or fluid design approach primarily changes the presentation once it's on your phone.

For 99% of businesses responsive design is mobile optimized... but not if you're a local content site.

For 99% of businesses responsive design is mobile optimized where highlighting your address, phone number and basic services or menu satisfies your visitors... but not if you're a local content site. If your are a local media property, however, mobile optimized requires more than a simple responsive design. It requires rethinking how you present content to people on different devices to align with their likely web-surfing needs not to mention the ads that appear need to be readable and not frustrating to the user.

People on the go are more likely to be looking for business information and reviews, local events and the like whereas articles and event planning are the dominant drivers on desktop. Don't fall prey to the buzzwords, understand the meaning and purpose behind them and you'll find you deliver a superior experience to users and value to advertisers.

Locable has been working on our mobile optimized experience which is set to debut shortly. It's an iterative process as we learn from our users but we are also focusing on addressing the big issues to make sure mobile visitors become repeat visitors, social evangelists and even content creators for all of our local sites.

Would you like to learn more about how Locable can help you grow your media business with the right technology, training and support? Request a free informational Program Overview and we'll show you what doing digital right looks like for local publishers. Do you run a local business, not a publisher, and you're looking for marketing or web design help? We've got you covered too. Contact us to learn more about how Locable helps local businesses grow.