Mobile Websites vs. Apps: Simple Facts
What is a mobile website?
A mobile website (also known as a responsive website) will collapse to fit a variety of web-enabled devices and is fully customizable for search engines.
Mobile-friendly, mobile-first, responsive, or responsive design websites mean the same thing.
In 2023, all websites that come up in search results are responsive. If the website is not made for mobile devices, search engines won't display it.
We use Foundation Zurb or Twitter Bootstrap frameworks to build our mobile websites.
Mobile websites and SEO
It is easy to optimize the websites created with Foundation Zurb or Twitter Bootstrap frameworks for search engines. They bring the same traffic as desktop websites and often even more traffic.
If you follow the best current trends and practices, if you display unique and high-quality content, and update search your website frequently, search engines are your friends; whenever they run a big update, they clean out low-quality or fraudulent websites from their databases. By doing that, they open the doors to many good quality sites that otherwise would have remained buried deep in the search results.
Do I need to have an app?
It seems like today everyone has an app. Your cat needs to have an app. Your dog needs to have an app.
If you run a business, do you need to have an app? No, not really.
In 2023, the Apple store contained 2,000,000 apps, and Google Play included 2,680,000 apps. How many apps at the app store have people never downloaded? How many downloaded apps were never used or used only once?
I keep a very minimal number of apps on my phone. It is Zoom, Netflix, Amazon Music, and very few others. How about you?
Can I optimize the app for a search engine?
Not really. You have to advertise an app, so people know it exists, and the advertisement can be costly. Usually, people first create a website and optimize it for search engines. When visitors come, they recommend downloading an app. Some of your visitors will download it, and some won't.
There are many other ways how you can promote an app:
- Write blog articles about your app, explaining its benefits and how to use it.
- Ask influencers to create a video review of your app and post it on youtube on their channel.
- Create a podcast on a specific topic and promote your app via podcast.
- Offer special store promotions that work only via the app and provide a QR code.
Can a mobile website be converted into an app?
Absolutely! It is easy to convert a mobile website into a mobile app and submit it to the Apple Store and Google Play for distribution. Check AppyPie Converter. Many other opinions exist. Do your research or compare options.
Cost
Creating an app from scratch can be very expensive, and before you spend thousands of dollars building a mobile app for your business, do the marketing research and learn more about your target market. Do your customers prefer to download the app or use Google search to find your business?
App security considerations
Today, the most common method hackers use to spread malware is through apps and downloads. Because of this, many people are becoming more cautious about downloading new apps.
Additional Resources:
Google test tool. Test how easily a visitor can use your page on a mobile device
Google guidelines for mobile websites. Get started guide and mobile-first indexing best practices.
Last updated on January 1, 2024.
NEXT, read our article "Writing for SEO: 10 Tips for Writing Awesome Website Content."
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