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What is mobile-first design? An explanation with mobile-first design examples

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In the modern era of technology, a mobile-friendly website is a must if you want to reach success. More and more people are using their smartphones to surf the net, and you should make your platform perform well and look awesome on all devices.

Today, the web development agency explains what mobile-first design means and why it is important, as well as showcases, and handpicked examples of mobile-first websites.

What is a mobile-first design?

Usually, when a website is developed, the design is created in compliance with the assumption that users will visit it from the desktop. After that, the website is modified to fit different screen sizes on various devices. Unfortunately, a lot of visual elements and features hardly adapt to mobiles and, as a result, look and function poorly.

responsive web design vs mobile-first web design

This is where the mobile-first design strategy comes in. Due to this approach, websites are developed for mobile gadgets first and then modified to adapt to computers.

Why should your website be mobile-first?

Discover how this approach can benefit your business.

  • Mobile-first websites have a lower bounce rate and a higher percentage of visits
  • Such platforms are ranked higher by search engines
  • You gain users’ loyalty
  • Attractive mobile-first design attracts more visitors
  • Web pages load faster and website performance improves

However, the most important reason for developing a mobile-first design is the mobile-first indexing announced by Google this spring. This means that Google will use the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking:

‘Starting July 1, 2019, Mobile Content Priority Indexing has been enabled by default for all new sites (they’ve just been published or weren’t in the Google index). Pages that have existed for a long time are still checked for compliance with the criteria listed in the recommendations. As soon as the site is ready to switch to a new indexing method, we will notify its owner in the Search Console. Notifications about new sites are not required to be sent, since in their case the new method is used by default.’ 

mobile-first indexing announced by Google

How to make a mobile-first website?

Keep in mind these strategies while building a mobile-first website.

#1. Use a responsive framework.
#2. Improve user experience.
#3. Implement techniques to increase page loading speed.
#4. Improve website navigation.

Examples of mobile-first websites

YouTube

YouTube mobile-first website

ABC

ABC mobile-first website

Huffington Post

Huffpost mobile-first website

Apple

Apple mobile-first website

Tesla Motors

Tesla mobile-first website

Nike

Nike mobile-first website

Airbnb

Airbnb mobile-first website

MTV

MTV mobile-first website

Building a mobile-first design with WishDesk

If you consider that your platform will be visited mostly by mobile users, we recommend developing a website, and it’s a mobile-first design from scratch. Contact our web development experts and designers to get a scalable and high-functional site.