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In February 2015, Cisco forecasted that “mobile data traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57 percent from 2014 to 2019, reaching 24.3 exabytes per month by 2019.” In April 2015, Google released a mobile-friendly update, and announced, “We’re boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results. Now searchers can more easily find high-quality and relevant results where text is readable without tapping or zooming, tap targets are spaced appropriately, and the page avoids unplayable content or horizontal scrolling.“
Thus, you can reap a number of benefits by developing a mobile-friendly website for your business. The mobile-friendly feature will make your website rank high on search engine result pages, and hence get regular website visitors. At the same time, the website will further keep the users engaged by delivering optimized mobile experience, and convert them into customers. However, you must use powerful and widely used web technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript to create a website that delivers optimized mobile experience, regardless of the user’s mobile device.
As the complete and final version of HTML standard, HTML5 comes with several new syntactic features, element attributes and APIs. The new features enable developers accomplish a variety of tasks without writing longer lines of code. At the same time, they can also take advantage of these features to boost the website’s performance and compatibility across a variety of devices. They can further use it to create mobile-friendly websites that offer more functionality than native mobile applications, while storing data on the client. There are also a number of reasons why web developers across the world use HTML5 for building mobile friendly websites.
Why Use HTML5 for Developing Mobile Friendly Websites?
Compatible with Major Devices and Browsers
At present, HTML5 is compatible with the latest versions of major web browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera. However, each browser does not support all HTML5 elements. Whenever a new element is introduced, it is not supported by all web browsers instantaneously. But the programmers can simply define the doctype to convey information about the elements to the web browser. It is also designed with features to create mobile websites that function smoothly across many devices and browsers.
Enhances Site Accessibility
While using HTML5 for web development, you can take advantage of ARIA and several semantic tags. New semantic tags like <header>, <footer>, < nav >, and < section > make it easier for the screen readers to access your website content. As the screen readers can read the document, the users can get optimized experience. Likewise, ARIA assigns specific role to various elements in a HTML page. It uses role attributes to identify and separate elements like header, footer, navigation and article. HTML5 further validates these elements to customize the content for each device.
Optimizes Website for Mobile Browsers
HTML5 allows developers to use several Meta tags to design websites for smaller touch screen devices. Based on their requirements, the programmers also have option to use specific Meta tags. For instance, they can use Viewport to describe the width and settings of a viewpoint. Likewise, full screen browsing option enables them to display the website in full screen mode on iOS devices. They can further use the home screen icons Meta tag to enable users to add their favorite apps to the home screen. These Meta tags make it easier for developers to customize the website for various mobile devices without writing additional code.
Supports Audio and Video Directly
HTML5 enables programmers to make the audio and video content accessible by using the < audio > and < video > tags. So they can make the audio and video play directly without using any third-party media player, and conventional HTML tags like < div > and < embed >. The new tags treat your media content just like images. However, you still have option to define various attributes of the video including source, height, width and auto play. These tags simplify the way websites deliver audio and video content to users using different devices.
Generates Better Forms
HTML5 further makes it easier for developers to create simple and intuitive forms for both web browsers and mobile browsers. While accessing the website on a mobile device, users often find it difficult to submit information through the form. But HTML5 makes it easier for users to fill in the forms on their mobile device. For instance, the keypad of the mobile device will automatically change according to the content to be submitted by the use. When a user is required to submit his email id, he will see a keypad with keys for @ and .com.
Allows Local Storage
HTML5 also features a local storage technique that is better and more secure than cookies. The local storage feature is designed just like a client side database. So it enables programmers to store the user information across multiple windows. Further, the user data will still persist even after the browser is closed or the user deletes all cookies. As they can store the data in user’s browser, it becomes easier for developers to accomplish tasks like storing the user information, caching data, and restoring the user’s previous application state. On the whole, the feature will keep the data secure and persistent, while making the website deliver better user experience.
Builds Better User Experience
To become more popular, your website must allow users to interact with the content instead of simply reading the information posted on it. Companies offering HTML5 development services enable you to boost user interaction using the < canvas > tag. The tag is designed in a manner similar to rich internet applications like Flash. It enables users to interact with the website content, and encourages them to visit your website regularly. At the same time, it further allows you to enhance user interaction using several native APIs. You can use these native APIs to manage browser history, edit document, store database offline, and time media playback.
Helps Programmers to Write Cleaner Code
Often programmers find it a daunting challenge to make changes to lengthy and unorganized HTML code. But HTML5 is designed with specific features to make the code cleaner and more organized. In addition to writing clear, descriptive and semantic code, you can further keep the meaning separate form style and content. At the same time, it further makes the code accessible and understandable for search engine bots. Thus, the cleaner code will also contribute towards increasing your website search engine visibility.
Along with using HTML5, you also need to focus on the website’s design, features and content to make it deliver optimized user experience. At the same time, it is also important to test the look, feel and performance of the website across many devices and mobile browsers to improve the overall site experience.
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