Is your web site tablet & phone friendly?

If not you might be missing out.

Here’s Why !

  • Every day; there are 1.4 million android and 600k iOS NEW (as in new users) activations worldwide
  • 61% of albertans have a mobile device (and a data plan to use it); this is the highest usage by province in the country
  • By the math straight up there are up to 400 NEW mobile device activations per day in Calgary
  • You want some more math; this should get your attention: 549,000 Calgarians over the age of 15 have a connected mobile device (we took the 2012 census data from the city of Calgary for a stated population of 1.2 million, subtract nearly 300k Calgarians under the age of 15 and then multiplied what is left by 61%)

What is a Responsive Web Site ?

A responsive web site has been designed to automatically adjust text, icon, and image sizing based on the device that the web site is viewed on. Don’t confuse this with web sites that automatically redirect the user to a mobile friendly web site after checking to see what the browser size is. This approach works but it may not be the best solution for your site.

OK. Why this and not that ?

Google recommends webmasters follow the industry best practice of using responsive web design, namely serving the same HTML for all devices and using only CSS media queries to decide the rendering on each device. With those numbers above it makes more and more business sense to design your web site with a mobile-first mindset and it turns out that a responsive web site is very good for improved SEO as well.

  • Where this benefits your site the most is in having the ability to serve a single URL for your site rather than having a seperate URL for your desktop site (eg. www.yourcalgaryitsource.com) and your mobile web site (eg. m.yourcalgaryitsource.com or www.yourcalgaryitsource.mobi)
  • With a single URL for all of your users (mobile and desktop) your link usage improves and the usabilty of  your web site improves.  Mobile users are not using their own addresses with desktop users have a separate set of addresses.
  • Without responsive web site design, also consider if a mobile user forwards a link to a desktop user or if a desktop user forwards a link to a mobile user the experience for the users will be less than optimal; each seeing a web site that was not designed for their display size and resolution.
  • The development of a responsive web site is a very cost effective design choice when compared to designing, implementing and supporting multiple web sites.
  • Having a single responsive site deals right away with the issue of consistency. Your message is the same always, you don’t need to ever concern yourself that one site has one message and the other site a different message.

How does responsive web site design tie to SEO?

Google tells us that all things being equal web site design should focus on a good user experience; a user experience with valuable relevant content and a complete and easy to navigate design. A responsive web site is a tool that can be used to provide that consistent user experience; a cornerstone of good web site design and hence a cornerstone of SEO optimized solutions.

How can we help?

We are not experts at responsive web design (we have not met that 10,000 hour mark yet) and we are not experts at SEO (yup, that 10,000 hours thing again) but we are very good at it.

First, we DO NOT guarantee a #1 ranking or any particular ranking (google is the definitive source here; “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google” http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291).

What we will do is work with you:

  • to set realistic expectations for pricing, site improvement timelines, page rankings, and web site design
  • to make specific recommendations for SEO improvements to your web site
  • to develop a responsive web site specifically to your requirements
  • implement in a timely manner all changes approved by you
  • communicate with you always on the implementation progress and status

What we will not do:

  • tie you into a contract (we hate them)
  • quote you a fixed price per month, the amount of work needed to implement SEO and to implement a responsive web site is not the same each billing cycle so it makes no sense to bill the same each month; we bill for work performed, plain and simple
  • exceed your budget without your prior approval; no surprises

Web sites are not static; they require constant work to maintain and develop.  Even once the site is complete regular updates to content, resubmission to search engines, and updates to site maps are required. The long term updates may not require significant effort but the maintenance is nevertheless required.

Give us a call, we would love to work with you.