Do I need a separate site for this and other mobile devices?

One of the biggest confusions these days are whether one needs a mobile website for their business or personal blog. It is not easy determining what is needed and what is considered as extra.

I’ll start with my personal opinion on this topic. You do not need a separate personal mobile site for your business or personal site. If the information is important to enough to deliver on the mobile device in a custom manner, you are better off building an app for the Android and iPhone platforms. There are a ton of tools out there that can allow you to do that easily.

The biggest drawback to having a separate mobile site is that you have to maintain it as a separate site. Of course there are WordPress plugins or other widgets and apps that will sync your content for you but regardless of what you do to keep your content in sync, it is another webpage to test and preview before publishing. For some this may be worth while and for others it may not be. Keep in mind thy this testing must be performed on all browser types, not just the mobile devices themselves.

My other point to this is that if you are or have hired a good developer they will be able to code your main site in such a way that it appears correctly on mobile devices, without having to create an entirely different site. If any developer tells you something cannot be done, be sure that it is technological reasons and not skills related, else you should find yourself a new developer.

Lastly, I find mobile sites have a long way to go in terms of usability. I’ve noticed that layouts, structures, and navigations are inconsistent and it’s hard p find general rules that everyone follows. Why is funny is that when you do find a general rules, it immediately changes because of the fast advancements in technology.

If you are considering a separate mobile site that requires extra time, effort, and money my recommendation would be to update your current site to work with mobile devices. Unless of course you are am industry leading company, developer looking to gain new skills/toy around, or a large corporation that can afford to pioneer in the mobile space. In which case I’m not are why you’d be reading this post since you should have a research department to tell you this stuff…no offense, but it’s true.