Why your Website needs to be Responsive
Mobile internet usage has grown at an incredible rate in recent years but still, some businesses have not made their websites mobile-friendly. This not only gives users a real problem but it also means your business is losing out.
The difference between mobile design and responsive design
When it comes to web design for mobile devices there are two ways in which it can be done. Responsive design and with mobile templates.
Responsive design will only require one version of your website that has been built in a way that it can adapt to fit to any screen size, regardless of the device.
A mobile template will require an additional mobile only website, with the templates only being designed for a specific site as opposed to a screen size and this is where issues can arise.
So why should your website be responsive? Read on to find out more.
Mobile use is on the rise
Everyone is mobile, whether they use their phone or tablet, they have the ability to browse websites whenever they want.
However, many businesses have still not come to terms with the fact that a huge amount of searches are carried out on a mobile device. To add to that, there are many users who only access the internet on a mobile device as the shift from PC and laptops continues to widen.
Solid user experience
User experience is massive. A user wants to feel comfortable whilst visiting your website and that is a decision they make in just a few seconds. If they come to your site and it fails to work or they cannot find what they want quickly, they will move on to the next search result.
It has also been proved that if they have a positive experience on your mobile site then they are even more likely to purchase one of your products or use your service immediately or complete the purchase on their laptop or desktop at a later date. So as you can see user experience is vital.
Social activities can increase mobile visitors
If you work in the same way as other inbound marketers, then you are likely to have a strategy that includes blogging and social media, both of which can increase mobile traffic.
With that in mind, if you share content on blogs or social media that link back to your website that is not mobile friendly, you are likely to experience a very high bounce rate and also see low conversion rates, not to mention frustrated users who will probably never return to your site in the future.
Responsive Design works better with SEO
There is no point in skipping around the obvious, but Google prefers responsive web design over mobile templates. Google can find and index your site better if you have the same url structure and this will also reduce the possibility of SEO issues such as duplicate content.
Therefore, responsive sites are known to have a better performance and are efficient to maintain for instance when you edit a page, you just do it once rather than twice which is the case if you have a separate mobile template version of your site.
A fast, responsive website just works
There are standards in place that suggest that content on the screen should load in under a second, while the whole of the page should load in under two seconds.
When it comes to loading a desktop website onto a mobile device, this will take longer and it will mean that the user has to wait and will probably just leave!
Future proof your website
A huge benefit of responsive design is that the template is based around the size of the screen and not the device. Ultimately, this will mean that it does not matter what size the screen is, the website will simply display what the user wants to see.
Technology changes at an incredible pace and businesses that have websites that are not responsive will simply get left behind. A responsive website will work on new devices such as TV’s, tablets and even watches.
Looking ahead, it is more important than ever that your website offers mobile users an experience that is simple while providing them with what they want.
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