RESPONSIVE WEBSITE DESIGN
A mobile responsive website is no longer a luxury. It’s a necessity.
With over 60% of all internet traffic now coming from a mobile device, it is essential that a website that can be viewed from any device; be it a smartphone, tablet or a desktop computer.
What Is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive web design is a method of building a website that is simply able to adjust to whichever screen size it is being viewed on. This provides an optimal viewing capability and enhanced user experience for potential customers who will be visiting your website from a smartphone or mobile device. Shockingly, despite the growth in the use of mobile devices and responsive websites, the majority of business websites are not mobile compatible and therefore will not successfully render on mobile devices or smartphones.
Will A Responsive Website Benefit My Business?
A mobile friendly website is essential not only for providing a good user experience, but also for being found online as it’s a crucial aspect of a good SEO strategy (search engine optimisation). Over 20% of Google searches are performed on a mobile device and Google have also launched Mobile friendly badges in the search results to help guide users on mobile devices. This means that businesses with a mobile web design are likely to receive a higher proportion of traffic from search engines than those who do not. Ultimately an increased volume of traffic will result in an increase in sales and leads for your business. Responsive website design in particularly beneficial for eCommerce websites as a mobile friendly shopping cart will result in a more intuitive checkout process. This will result in an increased conversion rate and reduced cart abandonment rate, which translates to an increase in sales. According to E-Consultancy 62% of companies that designed a website specifically for mobile had increased sales.
How Is A Responsive Website Different To A Regular Website?
Prior to websites being built with responsive web design techniques, the layout and framework of websites had a ‘one size fits all’ approach. This is because up until recently, most people viewed a website from a desktop computer or a laptop. So with a non- responsive website, if someone was to view this from a mobile device or a smaller screen, they would often have to zoom in to read text and click on links. A non- responsive website leads to a frustrating user experience and causes a lot of people to quickly leave in favor for websites that are mobile friendly.
According to a recent study by Google:
- 48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly
- 36% said they felt like they’ve wasted their time by visiting those sites
- 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company
- 48% said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business
In the already competitive world of online marketing not having a responsive mobile website could mean the difference between you and your competitors.
