Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/850474
12 FEDA News & Views interface for responsive design. "Basically, Google said if you're not mobile, we're not going to show your website to people doing searches on mobile devices," says Myers. "That's the position that Wasserstrom was in. Every single page of our website was deemed to be under mobile penalty so it was very important for us to get those penal- ties removed, and we did. "After we launched the new website continued on page 30 Mobile vs. Desktop continued Mobile Site Responsive Design Rendering Experience Domain Protection Link Equity Future-Ready A mobile site is essentially a copy of your website, where the server does the work to deliver an optimized page that's smaller and easier to navigate. The solution can really customize a unique experience for mobile users. A good choice when it might be too expensive to redesign responsively. With a mobile site, you must create a different domain (many companies choose to differentiate theirs by "m.domain.com"). Can dilute domain and hurt organic search traffi c. Can add to website management because you have to maintain two separate silos of content. Because a mobile site uses a separate domain, links shared from mobile browsers will not count as search link equity toward your primary site. Not as good for search. Re-working of a mobile site might be needed in order to stay current with next-generation phones and mobile browsers. Could require higher maintenance and expense. In responsive design, the device does the work and automatically adjusts according to a device's screen size (large or small) and orientation (landscape or portrait). It switches between these options on the fl y. A very good and fl exible solution. Responsive design lets you keep your own domain—nothing changes except code on the back-end. Googles thinks this is the better solution: "...Maintaining a single shared site preserves a canonical URL, avoiding any complicated redirects, and simplifi es the sharing of web addresses..." Since responsive design simply embeds new code on the back-end of your website, your company's link equity is preserved. Better option for search. The technology is more forward-thinking because once added to site, it will work on next months and next year's devices without having to be programmed further. A better return on your investment. For more information on mobile sites or responsive design, call Mark Knowles of Smart Solutions at 541-480-9040 or visit their website at smartz.com. in December, the penalty was almost completely gone from all of the pages on the site and we started to see our referral from Google (through organic searches) go back up. It was like having an anchor removed because we were being weighed down by the fact that people were searching for us via mobile and we weren't there. That's huge, espe- cially if you're trying to compete with bigger sites that already have a presence. If you don't have a mobile-friendly site, there's no way you can win." M-Sites vs. Responsive Design There's been a lot of back and forth about the best option to create a mobile- optimized web experience: mobile sites or responsive design. Commonly referred to as M-Sites or M-Dots, a mobile site is a static version or copy of a website designed specifi cally for mobile devices. (See chart below.) It has its own domain, which is often characterized by an "m," as in m.domain.com, and it's a com- MOBILE SITES VS. RESPONSIVE DESIGN Courtesy of Mark Knowles, a Principal of Smart Solutions