Mobile Websites: Responsive vs. Optimized

This past year, Google announced that there are now more searches on mobile devices than desktop computers, ushering us into an officially mobile-oriented world. Whether you’re developing your property website or launching a new website, optimizing the content and layout of your site for today’s mobile travel shoppers is essential.

It can be difficult to understand, let alone choose between, your mobile design options. But as a travel shopper’s journey bounces from mobile, to tablet, to desktop, it’s your job to ensure that users are accessing an attractive, user-friendly site on all of their devices – especially mobile. Vizlly gives you the option to choose the mobile experience you want to offer travel shoppers, by offering a responsive and an optimized website solution. Let’s take a look at both options. 

Responsive Design

Responsive design is exactly what it sounds like: it responds to the needs of the user and the device they are using to browse your website. Responsive websites allow users to create one site that will display the same on all devices – desktop, smartphone, and tablet.

As there isn’t a standard size for desktop, mobile, and tablet screens, a responsive design allows you to create graphics that stretch from edge to edge, no matter what a device’s dimensions are.

Consider this example of a responsive website by DoubleTree by Hilton Miami Airport. This responsive website theme looks the same on both smartphone and desktop, but the layout has been adjusted to fit screen size.

One advantage of a responsive websites is that you limit any unnecessary work on your part since you’re copying the same content that appears on your desktop site to your mobile site. However, this also means that you lose the opportunity to provide mobile travel shoppers with relevant, targeted content such as a unique special offer for on-the-go mobile shoppers.

Other benefits of a responsive website:

• Easy to create one website that will look great on all devices and screen sizes
• Easy navigation of website pages across all devices.
• A single URL which makes it easier for users to find you on a mobile device
• Supports gestures so mobile shoppers can easily engage with your stories.
• Ability to integrate Google Analytics to track shoppers on multiple devices.

Vizlly’s responsive website themes provide all the advantages of responsive websites. Vizlly also has a variety of responsive web widgets for you to choose from.

If you would like to have a responsive website, check out this easy article on how to update the website theme for your Vizlly website.

Mobile-Optimized

Unlike having one responsive site that changes itself for the device it is viewed on, creating a mobile website means that you are creating a separate website for mobile browsers. Mobile browsing behavior is typically much different than browsing on a tablet or desktop. Mobile browsing is often more purposeful, with people looking to find specific information like a phone number or directions.

In order to achieve this, navigation buttons may become larger, content is typically reformatted to allow for vertical scrolling, and images may be optimized differently to allow users to better navigate the website on their smaller screen.

The Thunderbird Inn offers its guests a mobile-optimized website. It has a similar look to the desktop version, but with larger navigation buttons and more succinctly organized content that is ideal for mobile browsing.

Creating a mobile-optimized website means that you are creating a separate website for mobile browsers. A mobile-optimized website is usually created using a subdomain, meaning the URL looks something like: m.examplehotel.com.  

The benefit of using Vizlly to create your optimized site is that you use one digital marketing system for your mobile and desktop websites, but you are able to tailor the content to each of your consumer’s devices and provide travel shoppers with an optimized experience, built to fit their device.

Other benefits of an Optimized Mobile Site:

• Provides an optimized experience that is built for the specific intent of your mobile customer
• Tailor your website content to specific devices
• Provide “no extra” work to build or maintain multiple versions of the website
• Optimize your media, reformatting to fit the travel shopper’s device
• Provide websites with the best load time performance and overall user experience

A mobile website will not only help your website stand out among the competition, but it will give travel shoppers the best possible browsing experience, no matter what device they’re using.

Whether you choose to create a responsive or mobile-optimized website, the most important thing is that you are providing travel shoppers with an excellent browsing experience no matter what device they are using – and that you’re providing shoppers with quality content they care about!

Check out this article for more information on creating a Vizlly website that can be easily optimized for mobile.