For a real estate website, is a different mobile site warranted vs a responsive site?

[MassMedia]

I researched the major real estate websites: Zillow, Trulia, Remax, Keller Williams, Century 21, etc. They all have a separate mobile site and not a responsive one. The client wants it to be easy to search for properties from a smartphone. Is it possible to get a responsive version of a real estate website on a smartphone?

[KevinBudzynski]

Yes, it's dictated in the css (and how the individual pages are coded). Look up fluid-grid concept.

[MassMedia]

Kevin, Do you mean 'yes, it's possible to create a responsive mobile site' or do you mean 'yes, it should be a separate mobile site'?

[BedeFahey]

Are the property listings part of your client's site, or are they hosted elsewhere? Many realtors send visitors to a separate third-party website that is then branded for the realtor.

If the listings are hosted on your client's site, then yes, it's possible to use responsive design. A responsive site is just a site that is set up to display content in different ways (e.g. different format, and potentially showing and hiding certain parts) based on things like screen width or resolution.

Whether a responsive site or a mobile version is the best solution depends on your business goals and how visitors are likely to use the site. You'll need to consider things like common site activities (beyond just searching for listings), how page-load time is likely to impact those activities, and what features you need for mobile vs. desktop.

As far as I'm aware, Google's "Recommended configuration" is still responsive, and it's a personal preference when I'm developing a site, but you also need to think about the implications for users.

[ReferralCandy]

Hi Melissa,

I'm assuming you are designing a mobile-friendly version of your client's real estate website. If that's the case, it would certainly be preferable to go for a responsive design. The main reason for this is SEO. Responsive designs maintain the same URL, which keeps your "SEO juice" regardless of whether visitors are viewing your website on mobile phones or on computers.

Mobile versions of websites are created before the concept of responsive web design was fully established, and it is my guess that other real estate websites developed mobile sites long before responsive versions are mainstream. As such, it would be a good idea to develop a responsive design for your client now, to differentiate his website from others in the same niche.

Moreover, responsive design caters to all screen sizes within one CSS version, while mobile versions can only cater to one screen size. Given the variety of screen sizes throughout new and old smartphones/tablets, it would be unimaginable to create mobile versions to suit all of them.

That being said, there are considerations to be made as mentioned by Bede. You would need to ensure the backend of  your client's site is suitable for easy & quick loading on mobile phones and tablets. Otherwise, a responsive design wouldn't help at all.

[KristinaKledzik]

He means, yes, it's possible to create a responsive site.

[KristinaKledzik]

Hey Melissa,

Many large websites choose to create separate mobile sites rather than using responsive design because they don't want to change the main version of the site (often because they've built a mobile website team that doesn't have any say in the activities of the primary website team). Don't use that fact to shy away from responsive design.

I generally recommend responsive. There are very few things that responsive designs can't do. Namely, you can't have different content on your mobile site than you do on your desktop site. Do you want your mobile site to be a mini version of your desktop site? Then you can probably make it responsive. You can definitely create a responsively designed site that allows you to search for properties easily.

Hope this helps!

Kristina