Here is an article contributed by Lori Campbell, a member of PressTheWord, a tutorial channel in Youtube. Fascinated with web design, Lori and her team aim to teach every beginner how easy it is to build websites.  If you have web design/Wordpress related inquiries, feel free to interact with them through their channel, PressTheWord

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Just a few short years ago, most businesses did not see the need to go the route of creating a mobile friendly version of their site.  The technology was relatively new and only the “techno-geeks” really took advantage.  However, once smartphones and iPads started to dominate the market, the number of users surfing the web via mobile devices skyrocketed to the point where over 10 percent of total internet traffic is coming from mobile devices. 

This explosion has forced many business to reexamine their sites and forced them to either redesign their site or setup a separate website entirely.  For those just starting a new site, you will want to setup your website to be mobile friendly from the start and today we will share with you some tips for creating a mobile friendly site.

You have several options when setting up your website, but we will give you the two most common methods that most businesses use to make their site web-friendly.  The first and the one that a lot of business use is the development of a separate mobile site for their business.  There are several advantages of this site, including the ability to optimize the website for web users.  With those advantages comes additional maintenance needed to keep both websites updated.

The other option for developing a mobile friendly site, and one that Google advocates, is setting up a responsive web design.  When creating a responsive web design, you will code your site in such a way that it will automatically adjust itself to the screen size of your user’s devices.  Images, text, banners, and menus all resize themselves automatically based on the screen resolution of the device it is displayed on.  It is truly a one size fits most solution for creating a mobile friendly site.

For those wanting to create a mobile friendly site using a responsive design, we have a detailed WordPress tutorial on youtube that teaches you how to setup a responsive site.  Once you have setup this site, you can test it in several ways.  The easiest is simply test it by resizing your browser.   You will then notice the website resize itself based on the size of your browser.  Next, test out the site on your cell phone, smartphone, and other mobile devices to see how it looks.

A responsive web design will probably be the best bet for any Startup wanting to create  a mobile friendly site.  Google recommends it and their standards are the ones that usually drive the web industry.  By getting ahead of the curve now, your business will  be ready for a future where mobile traffic will be a driving force on the web.