It’s official: the internet lives on mobile.
With mobile browsers overtaking desktop, a mobile-friendly site is no longer just a “nice to have”. This requires a shift in the web design process that M-dot sites just can’t sustain in the long term.
Source: “Boston Globe responsive website, featuring Apple Newton.” Antoine Lefeuvre. Creative Commons.
In this article we’ll explain why M-dot sites aren’t future-proof, and why responsive design is the responsible way to build mobile-friendly websites.
Table of Contents
The Vulnerability of M-Dot Sites
Back when mobile browsing was new, M-dot sites made a lot of sense. Their faults could have been chalked up to inexperience — designers were scrambling to keep up with users before the mass proliferation of mobile devices.
Now, some years later, mobile devices became more complex, thanks to tablets and varying screen sizes.
So what exactly is mobile? Smartphone, tablet… watch, glasses? Even limiting it only to smartphones, what size screen? The diversity of mobile devices has grown exponentially since M-dot sites were first used.
This isn’t just our speculation, either. Pure Oxygen Labs reports that last year M-dot sites fell 20%, from 79% in 2013 to 59% in 2014, while responsive and adaptive (dynamic serving) sites rose 37% collectively. Of course, some stalwarts remain (like Facebook and Zappos, who maintain a M-dot site mostly for site load advantages), but it’s fairly safe to say that M-dot sites are generally dying out.
Photo Credit: Zappos
Let’s explore some of the reasons to abandon M-dot sites:
- Users visit the full site anyway — Research from Web Performance Today shows that about a third (35%) of users choose to go to the full site if given the option.
- Users spend more time on the full site — The same research states users spend 5.5 times longer on full sites than M-dots.
- Full sites yield more revenue — The study also calculated that 79% of revenue from mobile sales came from users on the full site.
- SEO/Google trouble — According to Google’s own guidelines, responsive sites will likely rank better. Not using an M-dot is a automatic boost in SEO.
- Redirect time — While M-dot sites load faster in theory, the extra time of redirecting from your full site to the M-dot (unless the user types the M-dot’s URL) is unnecessary. Alongside the other drawbacks, is it worth it?
- Social sharing problems — M-dot links opened on a desktop are, at best, ugly. Given how this is not even an issue with responsive design, the path to better social settings is clear.
- Expensive maintenance — When you add an extra codebase, you also add more maintenance cost in the long-run. You’ll either need to deal with twice the work or use a server-side solution, both of which are more expensive than a responsive site.
- Mobile devices aren’t a single screen size — It’s ironic that what was once the greatest strength of M-dot sites is now its greatest weakness. M-dot sites are designed for a specific screen size, but mobile devices range from 320×240 for some smartphones up to 768×1024 (and beyond) for tablets. It just doesn’t make sense to serve the same layout to all those screens.
Add them all up and you start to see the cracks.