As technology and society changes, so do people’s habits. With the growing popularity of smart phones and tablets, the usage of home computers is falling year on year. In 2018, for the first time, more websites were accessed from mobile phones than PCs – over 52% of global traffic. It is now more important than ever that websites and businesses ensure they are catering for the mobile market. And with Android taking a massive share of the spoils – despite Apple ubiquity – is imperative that anyone looking to build a mobile website considers these users carefully.
Fortunately, Google has produced a set of guidelines for anyone wanting to create content on the Android operating system. These guidelines contain everything about how the website should look and function and are an invaluable source of information. Remember that, unlike PCs, mobile devices have inbuilt functionality that goes beyond just displaying a website – location trackers, motion trackers and voice recognition set them apart from many desktop PCs and laptops.
Here we run through some of the major factors need to be considered, and utilised, when designing a website that stands out from the crowd.
Mobile apps or mobile sites?
When it comes to mobile gaming, businesses have two options – create a standalone, downloadable app, or make your web-based content mobile-friendly.
An app is one of the best ways a brand can connect with its audience. An app has to be separately created, downloaded so it takes up space on a user’s phone, and must be developed for a specific OS. One of the biggest advantages of creating an app is that you can also reach consumers through ‘push’ notifications when you have an important message or product to shout about.
Apps developed for Android software are distributed through the Google Play Store, either for free or an upfront fee, and users can rate and review the apps once they have downloaded them – which can add to their download conversion rate.
For companies that simply don’t have the cash to develop an app, mobile websites can work well too. Mobile sites are designed to work within the confines of a smartphone screen and optimised to be used on mobile devices.
Until 2018, online gambling sites were banned from app stores to discourage underage gamblers from downloading them. They’re permitted now, but Google Play Store gambling rules (for non UK, Irish or French users) mean that apps containing casino games or other forms of gambling may not trade in real money. Even in the UK, apps must pass a 9-point checklist of requirements before Google will distribute anything that allows users to gamble real money.
While online casino operators are now allowed their own apps, the years they spent in the dark taught them how to optimise their websites for mobile use and make sure they functioned like mobile apps. That’s why you’ll always get a great experience visiting certain online casinos through your mobiles, as you’ll see when playing for example these exciting online casino games.
Responsive design and mobile-first indexing
Obviously there is a huge difference between how something is going to look on a 16 inch computer screen compared to a 5 inch smartphone. Not just in the quality of the images, but also considering the amount of information you are able to display. Nobody nowadays is going to have the patience to side-scroll through content that hasn’t adapted to a smaller device. Considering the user’s viewport – the size of the screen they will be accessing the content on – is vital.
If you want to run a website that displays efficiently on both computer and mobile screens, you have two main options: create separate pages with identical content, one for each platform, or invest in a responsive website that adjusts between different viewports.
Responsive websites share a single URL, meaning that you don’t have to manage multiple sites, often using completely different skills to do so, or update your content more than once. They intuitively adapt the way the content fits on a page to make it easier to read for the user’s choice of device.
As of March last year, Google started to roll out their policy of ‘mobile-first indexing’, meaning that the mobile version of a page will be used for indexing and ranking. This is in response to mobile browsing becoming the most common form of accessing web content. Google have also gone on record to state that responsive websites are their preferred format for mobile websites, probably as they contain the most complete record of site visitors for all viewports.
The John Lewis website serves as a useful example of a fine responsive design site. It delivers the same user experience across all screen sizes and resolutions. While there are certainly pros and cons to responsive design, these types of websites are better optimised for mobile use – and therefore, Google will favour them when ranking them in search results.
To help designers create exceptional mobile content, Google and their collaborators have developed an open source website creation initiative aimed at helping businesses develop better mobile pages. These pages are designed to load faster, improving site traffic and keeping users engaged, without sacrificing style, functionality or content. They rely on using stripped-back HTML, JavaScript and CSS to reduce the coding clutter that can affect loading times.
Mobile friendly basics
So what are the key challenges in creating a mobile website, and how can a good developer overcome them?
- Easy to read fonts. Remember that mobile websites are viewed on smaller screens and operated by fingers or a stylus, as opposed to a mouse/mousepad. For the best user experience, content needs to be written in a larger font and organised so that the user can find the most important information quickly.
- Quick-loading images. By contrast, pictures need to be compressed into a smaller file size. This can be done without a great reduction in quality, but it will have a huge impact on loading times, something that mobile users have no tolerance for.
- Slick navigation. A mobile website will probably contain more menus that a desktop page to allow for easy navigation between topics. These should be instantly responsive and ensure that any submenus generated remain accessible. Submenus have large buttons, respond straight away (no annoying loading time) and the important content, the games themselves, are located at the top of the page.
Summary
There aren’t many industries that shift faster than web development, so it really pays to keep on top of your website. As consumers evolve the ways their digest content, communicate with each other and make purchases, brands will also have to respond. Currently, mobile optimisation is the standard that all businesses who hope to have a digital presence need to reach – so if you want to achieve success online, you’d better get mobile ready.
