Dynadot

domains Google’s focus on the Mobile Web is making apps less relevant, and domains more relevant

Spaceship Spaceship
Watch

News

Hand-picked NewsTop Member
Impact
3,470
When the concept of “Apps” was introduced mobile responsive web design just wasn’t where it is today. Mobile sites were often clunky and hard to navigate, apps offered a much better mobile experience. Thanks to major progress in front-end design world (i.e. HTML, CSS, and Javascript) mobile websites now are almost indistinguishable from apps, and some brands are starting to deprecate their apps in favor of a mobile responsive site.
This means that every domain investors greatest fear has been mostly dashed (for now) since it’s clear that every company needs a good domain name, whether they target mobile or desktop. Also, think a little about the apps on your phone. How many of them to you use regularly? The reality is that most people only use around 5 apps on their smartphone, compare this to the number of mobile sites someone visits and, well, there really is no comparison...
Read More
 
8
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
1
•••
1
•••
"As of April 21, there will be more mobile-friendly websites in your search results. Google Webmasters write, “…we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. "
Glad that I paid attention to my "Google webmaster" account and did there suggestions about mobile friendly tips...traffic basically the same as before but pretty sure that I would have lost a lot of search traffic if I haven't paid attention!
Thanks for the article/reassurance!
 
3
•••
We went through this at the beginning of the century. Software ended up going online as our capabilities and capacities increased. The same will happen with apps for the most part. There is too much value in organic search results online when it comes to adoption. Watch Instagram push its platform online in the near future with the addition of video and additional upgrades (bandwidth is becoming less of an issue and video is going to be bigger than it already is in the coming years).
 
2
•••
Nice one. "I go me a shopping to replenish my stock"
 
0
•••
I think use of internet connection for function is a key consideration to choose mobile webs or apps:
If internet access is a must (e.g. for login, download/upload files, GPS), mobile websites are preferred.
If internet access is not necessary (e.g. calculator, unit converter, song/video player), apps are preferred.
 
2
•••
Does that mean .mobi domains value appreciate by any chance?
 
0
•••
Makes sense. Interesting how a couple years ago businesses had more interest in developing a mobile app to combat the challenges associated with responsive sites. Sounded great but it's a challenge to get customers to downlload an and then use it regularly...apps need a lot of incentivized features such as deals, push notifications etc. to keep customers engaged in their app. Interesting how domain names centered around mobile search will be much more valuable
 
3
•••
Interesting article. Some top ecommerce sites in India ditched their .com desktop / mobile site and went full APP-only. Within 6 months they realised their mistake and went back to responsive desktop/mobile site that could be accessed by domain name and was available in google search results. It seems they lost huge organic traffic from searches as they went app-only.
 
1
•••
  • The sidebar remains visible by scrolling at a speed relative to the page’s height.
Back