What is a responsive website?
When a website can adjust itself to any popular mobile device or desktop computer it is called responsive. It does this whether you open the website on a desktop, on a mobile device horizontally or vertically.
What makes responsive technology so great for your small business?
In short, it saves you money while making both your site visitors and Google happy. Prior to responsive design, to make sure your website looked great on both desktop and mobile you had to create and maintain a separate website for each; one for mobile and one for desktop. Responsive design allows you to create and maintain one website that works on both mobile and desktop.
What is responsive website design?
To look great on both desktop and mobile your website requires a different layout and fonts and sometimes totally different elements. Older, non-responsive websites, require the user to pinch, pan, scroll and zoom to view the website making for a very frustrating experience. Responsive website design makes sure that the proper adjustments are made so that your website is easy to read, is easy to navigate and user-friendly no matter what device it is used on.
How does it work?
Modern websites have a lot of programming embedded in each page. This allows the website server to determine the width of the device where the website is being opened and adjust the programming so the website looks its best on that device.
Key features of responsive design
The fluid properties of responsive design allow flexibility. All elements adjust to the screen size of device. There is no compromise of quality. The graphics and aesthetics stay the same. Even images resize without affecting the image quality. All these key features make responsive web designing a successful phenomenon.
Why should you switch to responsive website designing?
First, since you are maintaining one site, not two it saves you money. Second, since the technology is built to accommodate any device, even devices not yet invented, it reduces the complexity of site development and maintenance. Third, since responsive design makes it easy to adjust the website to new features or content it makes updates and changes much faster. Lastly, Google recommends it as a best practice. For these reasons, it is important to have a responsive website.
Those are the four technical reasons. The main reason is to deliver a great viewing experience to your site visitors. 85% of website visitors that have a bad mobile experience will leave and never return. Just as important, you will lose business to your competitors if users have trouble finding the information they are looking for on your website.
In 2016 Americans spent 51% of their time on mobile-based devices which is considerably more than the time then the 42% they spent on desktops or laptops.
In April 2015, Google announced a ‘mobile-friendly update’ that gives better rankings to mobile-friendly pages in Google search results.
One emerging reason people are using mobile devices is Voice search. Studies show that 56% of on the go searches have local intent.
TIP:?
Make sure you check your website on multiple devices Even if you must use someone else’s phone or tablet. In 2017 the majority of your customers and prospects are using their mobile devices to find and learn about your business. Make it as easy as possible for them by making sure your website delivers the best user experience both on desktop and mobile.