General question on mobile friendly websites

[xoggoth]

Now that Google is penalising search ratings on mobiles I ought to create a mobile friendly version. Although it does actually work on mobiles, it certainly isn't mobile friendly, having fixed width requiring zoom out or scrolling, some images probably rather big and defined in pixels etc.

Just pondering whether to use one of these automatic conversion services or do it meself. If latter, whether to do one site for all devices or just do an alternative version for mobiles. If latter, how reliable are the device checks?

Cheers.

[woohoo]

Now that Google is penalising search ratings on mobiles I ought to create a mobile friendly version. Although it does actually work on mobiles, it certainly isn't mobile friendly, having fixed width requiring zoom out or scrolling, some images probably rather big and defined in pixels etc.

Just pondering whether to use one of these automatic conversion services or do it meself. If latter, whether to do one site for all devices or just do an alternative version for mobiles. If latter, how reliable are the device checks?

Cheers.

A while back a client wanted a mobile friendly site, I was all for creating a m.sitename for mobile versions. However, I'm glad I didn't go down that route. We ended up using bootstrap to create a mobile friendly site that works on different screen sizes - it's pretty easy to do and works very well.

If I had an existing fixed width site I would probably look at some of the themed bootstrap templates you can buy and fit to my web site. I reckon you could make something that looks pretty good.

Sorry no idea about automatic services.

[Bunk]

Yep, I would agree, Bootstrap or Foundation are the way to go. They're easy to use and handle the responsive stuff for you, although be aware that if you need the site to work in IE8 and below you might run into problems due to a lack of media query support.

Edit: I also have no idea about the automatic conversions.

[woohoo]

although be aware that if you need the site to work in IE8 and below you might run into problems due to a lack of media query support.

Internet Explorer 8 requires the use of Respond.js to enable media query support.

From

Getting started · Bootstrap

[xoggoth]

Cheers chaps. Not got round to it yet but will have a look at that Bootstrap thing.

[Contreras]

Now that Google is penalising search ratings on mobiles I ought to create a mobile friendly version. Although it does actually work on mobiles, it certainly isn't mobile friendly, having fixed width requiring zoom out or scrolling, some images probably rather big and defined in pixels etc.

Just pondering whether to use one of these automatic conversion services or do it meself. If latter, whether to do one site for all devices or just do an alternative version for mobiles. If latter, how reliable are the device checks?

Cheers.

This prompted me to update a very basic (single html page) site, which I hadn't given any thought to mobile friendliness until now.

Tested using Google's site checker here it initially reported as mobile-unfriendly, but easily fixed by following the guidance here. Simples!

I know my case is probably the most basic ever but it's worth browsing the Google SEO guidance if you haven't already.
https://developers.google.com/webmas.../select-config
https://developers.google.com/webmas...site-software/
https://developers.google.com/webmas...mmon-mistakes/
https://developers.google.com/webmas...arted/mistakes

[mudskipper]

This prompted me to update a very basic (single html page) site, which I hadn't given any thought to mobile friendliness until now.

Tested using Google's site checker here it initially reported as mobile-unfriendly, but easily fixed by following the guidance here. Simples!

Excellent - the TL;DR advice was all that was needed to sort out a certain popular comment generator. < 5 minutes and it is now "awesome".