Web development sits in a unique spot amongst the various programming disciplines. The goal is not to create stand-alone, self-contained work but instead to fit into a framework in place. For a long time, that framework was built around desktop browsers, but in recent years the priority has switched to optimising for mobile users. Here is why the mobile-first approach is currently so popular for web developers and what the biggest advantages are to it.
Popularity
The golden rule of business is that the numbers don’t lie, and all the numbers right now are pointing toward mobile, which accounts for over half of internet traffic. Online-focused businesses have wholeheartedly adopted the mobile-first approach, with the biggest example probably being online casinos, where virtually all sites and games are made this way. They know that someone looking up online gambling guides to start on slots or table games is most likely doing so from a mobile device these days, so they make sure to focus on those users first. Incidentally, you’ll find that each of the games mentioned in the above guides comes in a mobile version or, with increasing frequency, is simply mobile-browser compatible.
Most importantly, this trend is not slowing down, with mobile internet users currently increasing over traditional PC users by more than 1% each year. This isn’t just across one industry or type of app either, as these are general numbers across all internet usage.
The SEO Factor
While search engines like Google are famously tight-lipped about the secret recipe that goes into their algorithms, there are a handful of factors that most agree are important. In recent years, mobile-friendly sites seem to be getting a boost in search ranking, with more basic desktop-focused sites dropping back.
It’s hard to overstate just how important SEO has been and will become in the future. Research has consistently shown that users of search engines rarely, if ever, go past the first place of results, meaning that getting a site onto the first results page often becomes more important than the info on the page itself. Given that mobile usage is increasing as discussed above, this is an SEO factor unlikely to change.
Future-Proofing
Many in app developments and other software areas are clearly seeing mobile as the way forward as well, given the sheer scale of that side of the industry. It’s expected to more than triple in value across the 2020s and should continue to grow long beyond that. This in turn means that many future tech innovations are set to favour mobile devices, and this will inevitably spill over into web development.
The idea here is that optimising a site for mobile will make life easier in years to come, in the event of new features or technologies that appear. Even if no new features are added, updates to browsers and plug-ins will arrive, and keeping a single mobile-first approach will make the update process much smoother.
The good news is that many of the biggest web-building platforms now also focus attention on mobile design, so if this isn’t your forte, there’s a lot of help to get set up. If you’re more hands-on with your programming, there’s plenty of reference material too!