According to the statistics and facts on mobile internet usage posted on Statista.com, “As of 2015, worldwide mobile phone internet user penetration was 52.7 percent. In 2017, figures suggest that more than 63.4 percent of mobile phone users will access online content through their devices.” Likewise, a number of studies have also highlighted that the number of users switching from mobile phones to smartphones, tablets or phablets is increasing consistently and rapidly.

That is why; it becomes essential for website owners to optimize their websites for mobile devices to keep the visitors engaged and accomplish higher conversion rate. As a website owner, you can use a variety of technologies to make your website responsive and mobile-friendly. Some of these technologies are open source, while others are licensed and commercial. But you can always reap a number of benefits by building the mobile website with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.

As the updated and current version of HTML, HTML5 makes it easier for you to boost the website’s performance and compatibility across a variety of devices. It further comes with a number of new semantics, element attributes, and APIs to simplify modern web application development. You can even take advantage of HTML5 tags to embed images, graphics, videos and audio into a web page without using any additional plug-in. There are several reasons why you build your mobile website with HTML5.

12 Reasons Why You Should Build Your Mobile Website with HTML5

1) Responsive Web Design
Many businesses nowadays adopt responsive web design to make their websites look good and run seamlessly on desktops, smartphones, tablets and phablets. Also, Google recommends owners to adopt responsive web design to increase the search engine ranking and visibility of their websites. Responsive web design requires developers to combine HTML5 and CSS3 to make the web page look good on each device by hiding, moving, resizing, enlarging or shrinking website content. You can combine HTML5 with CSS3 and JavaScript to reap benefits of responsive web design.

2) Open Source Web Technologies
You can always curtail project overheads by using open source web technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. The latest versions of major web browsers currently support HTML5. Also, HTML5 comes with several features to simplify development of mobile-friendly websites. However, the older versions of certain web browsers still do not support all HTML5 elements. You can easily overcome the shortcoming by defining doctype. Doctype will convey detailed information about the HTML5 elements to the web browser and make the page look good.

3) Optimize for Mobile Browsers
HTML5 enables developers to optimize a website for smaller touch screen devices through meta tags. You can use specific Meta tags to make your website compatible with mobile browsers. For instance, you can avail Viewport to define and width and settings of a view points. The home screen icons Meta tag can be used for allowing users to add their favorite mobile apps to the home screen. You can even allow users to see the website in full screen mode on iOS devices by enabling full screen browsing option.

4) Boost the Website’s Accessibility
The new semantic elements of HTML5 make it easier for you to make your website accessible on various devices. You can use < header >, < footer >, < nav >, < section > and similar semantic elements to make the website content accessible to screen readers. Likewise, you can take advantage of ARIA to identify and distinguish elements like header, footer, navigation and article by assigning specific role to each element. HTML5 customize the website content for each device by validating each HTML5 element through its role attributes.

5) Embed Audio, Video and Graphic Directly
You must embed audio, video and graphics into various web pages to keep the users engaged. HTML5 allows you to embed audio, video and graphics into a web page directly by specific tags like the < audio > and < video > tags. The tags allow users to access the audio and videos without using any third-party plug-in or extension. Also, the tags enable programmers to customize the video and audio by defining their key attributes like source, height, width and auto play. You can even use specific tags that draw graphics on the browser dynamically through procedural methodologies.

6) Create Better Forms
HTML5 makes it easier for you to create forms that users can access on both desktop computers and mobile devices. You can further optimize the form for smaller touch screen devices to enable users to submit input or information without any hassle. You can use specific HTML5 elements to customize the form automatically according to the required input. For instance, you can make the form display users a keypad with keys for @ and .com, when he is required to submit his email id. You can further take advantage of these features to make the contact form of your website both simple and intuitive.

7) Take Advantage of Local Storage Feature
You can take advantage of local storage feature of HTML5 to store the user information without using cookies. The local storage option is designed as a client side database that stores the user information securely across multiple windows. The feature further stores all user information on the web browser, while keeping the data persistent and secure. You can further use the local storage feature to boost your website’s user experience by caching user data and restoring the previous application state of the user.

8) Make Your Website More Interactive
HTML5 further makes it easier for you to make your website more interactive. You can simply use the < canvas > tags to keep the visitors engaged by allowing them to interact with the website content. The tag can also be used for generating graphics and effects based on the user’s input and preference. HTML5 further provides a variety of native APIs that help you to make the website deliver personalized experience by storing database offline, editing document, managing browsing history, and timing media playback.

9) Offline Application Cache
HTML5 allows you to specify the files to be cached by the web browser. Hence, you can make the browser cache the pages recently viewed pages and other user information efficiently. You can take advantage of the offline application cache option to enable users to access the recently viewed pages even when there is not internet connection. Also, you can simply specify the files to be captured by the web browser to make the page load faster and reduce the load on server. The feature will further help you to boost the website’s user experience across many devices without writing additional code.

10) Avail Geolocation Support
Your website can always keep the users engaged by delivering relevant and personalized information to each user according to his current location. You can identify the current location of each user in a number of ways – based on wireless network connection, IP address, cell tower or GPS hardware included in his mobile device. The Geolocation API provided by HTML5 to make the current location of the user available to the web browser regardless of the methodology. Hence, the website can deliver personalized information to each user based on his current location.

11) Choose from Many HTML5 Frameworks
You can further save the time and effort required for building the mobile website by using robust HTML5 frameworks. As most of these HTML5 frameworks are open source, you can avail the resources provide by them without incurring additional expenses. Also, you can avail the assistance of the large community to optimize the usage of HTML5 frameworks. You also have option to choose from several HTML5 frameworks for responsive web development including Foundation, Sencha Touch, Ionic, Semantic UI, Bootstrap and SproutCore. Each HTML5 framework comes with features to simplify responsive website development, while overcoming some of the shortcomings of HTML5.

12) Build a Clean and Maintainable Code Base
The new semantic elements provided by HTML5 will help you to accomplish many tasks without writing additional code. For instance, you can use the < video > tag to easily embed video clips into a web page, and allow users to access the visual content without using any specific plug-in. Hence, HTML5 makes it easier for you to keep the code base clean and concise. Further, you can use a single code base to make the website accessible and look good on a variety of devices. The single code base makes it easier for you to maintain and update the website without putting extra time and effort.

However, HTML5, like other web technologies have several shortcomings. For instance, HTML5 lacks robust security features to protect the website from targeted malware attacks and emerging security threats. Hence, you need to combine HTML5 with the right technologies to enhance the website’s functionality, performance and security. Also, you must not forget to take advantage of HTML5 frameworks to build the mobile website without putting extra time and effort.