As we continue to see a staggering growth in the use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, it is more essential than ever to have a website that is responsive and mobile-friendly. In fact, approximately half of all web traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices — that’s a massive chunk of the market, and if your website isn’t responsive, then your business could be suffering.
What exactly is responsive website design?
For starters, it means much more than merely having a mobile-friendly website. Mobile-friendly sites can look nice on an iPhone, but they may be tougher to navigate when being viewed on a laptop with a higher resolution. A truly responsive website design means that your website can move and adapt to any size screen it’s been viewed on — be it a desktop computer, a smartphone, or a tablet — and users won’t really notice any difference in the site’s overall appearance.
Beyond the obvious, there are a plethora of reasons why you should have a responsive website design, including:
It’s easier to manage and update.
Back in the day, businesses would create two separate versions of one website — one for desktop computers and one for mobile devices. But maintaining entirely two separate websites can be high-maintenance, costly, and unnecessarily time-consuming. A responsive website is instantly ready to go, reflects any updates that have been made, and works seamlessly across all technological devices.
The user experience is top-notch.
Few things are worse than seeing a beautiful website on your laptop, but then viewing a distorted version of the same site on your smartphone. On screens of a certain size, unresponsive websites can come across as distorted with jumbled text and misaligned images, making it a pain for visitors to find the information they’re looking for.
It boosts your SEO efforts.
Responsive websites with a uniform, user-friendly experience, and high-quality design are more likely to retain visitors for longer periods of time, leading to a higher ranking in SERPs (search engine results pages). And honestly, Google approves of responsive web development.
The mobile traffic simply isn’t slowing down.
The majority of social media consumption happens on mobile devices and sharing website links across the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter means even more traffic coming in from the ol’ smartphone. With a responsive design, rest assured that your content can be consumed quickly and easily — even from the bathroom! (It’s true, three out of four Americans admit to using their smartphone while doing their business.)
Get a beautiful website for your business or brand that can adapt to any device. Contact us today for a free quote!