As you may already realize, we have gotten to the point that there are more mobiles devices in the world than there are people. Mobile devices have become the easiest, fastest and unquestionably the most common way people browse the Internet today. And it all looks as though this trend is only going to keep increasing with the passing of time.
The tech giants have already changed and adjusted themselves to this new reality. Google modified his code to favor mobile friendly websites within their results and has launched many tools to help every website owner analyze and repair how their site respond to different mobile environments.
Last year alone the growth of this market was incredible, and all indicators point that this trend will not change soon.
Based on that information we can conclude that if you have a website that does not render properly on mobile devices, you are surely losing business opportunities and your expectancy of online growth could be reduced up to 60%.
But this post is not about statistics and how much you need your online business to be responsive, is it about the difference between responsive design and online apps. Let's get into it.
Responsive web design:
A responsive website will behave very well when it's visited by someone using a smartphone or a tablet. There are certain things you can choose to hide or show depending on the device being used the visitor, but they will all look very close to your desktop version (computer). That's all you really need to be considered a mobile friendly website, and Google, Bing and other search engines and tech giants will appreciate it.
This is normally something already included when you contract someone to create and develop your website (at least for us) and the price of developing a responsive website should not change a lot from what it originally would be for just a desktop version.
Online Apps:
A mobile app, on the other hand, is what the bigger companies are implementing to enhance the experience of their visitors. Take for instance amazon.com; you can quickly realize how different their app is from what you see on your computer, and to what you see when visit their website using your smartphone or tablet.
Online apps are an entirely a different animal, but they give business owners a more sophisticated tool to approach their visitors in a very different, more direct way. Besides a different experience, there is a lot of information and tools dedicated only to mobile users, GPS, notifications, better design, easier browsing, dedicated services, precise information and so on, we can keep going on this forever.
Or course, it all comes at a price, and a mobile app will definitely cost more than a regular responsive website, but depending on your business and your budget it is something that should be taken into consideration. "How much more?" would you ask... and as everything else, it all depends on what you have in mind and the specifics about your business. For more information about prices check out prices page or get in contact with us.
Do I need a Web App?
After reading about the difference between responsive web design and online apps that should be your next question. If you already have a website, it should easy for you to look at your statistics to understand how many people visit your site using mobile devices. From there look at the bounce rate from those visits and do a little research within your analytics tools to understand their behavior, where they are leaving and why.
Studying your website analytics will give you a better answer than anybody. From there you can put on a scale how much business you can be losing, it and it may also give you ideas about what you need to implement to fix this problem.
If you don't have a website.... Our first and biggest recommendation is for you to give us a call right away. We can create one for you in a very short period and give you something that not only you will feel proud, but that works for you. Check what our customers say about us and our services.
From there you will be ready to follow our recommendations above
Conclusion
We will never sell you something you don't need, we are proud of our honesty and as you can see in our customer's reviews our main goal is to give you the tools you need and the possibilities to grow on them. That is why we will advise you to give us a call and talk to one of our guys, we can point you in the right direction with no commitment from your side at all. Web Designer Express has been in the market for more than 20 years and we plan to stay here for our customers for a long time still. We don't only build a website, we build relationships.
