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.
The top 3 questions about 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.
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:
In the already competitive world of online marketing not having a responsive mobile website could mean the difference between you and your competitors.
Responsive web design is achieved by a web developer including instructions (or lines of code) to re-size the web design relative to the size of the device it is being viewed on. This is most commonly achieved by readjusting the width and or height of certain elements on the page like images and navigation items. Responsive web design uses multiple web development techniques which were first combined for this purpose by Ethan Marcotte who wrote a manifesto on responsive design.
The best responsive web design results are achieved by having a mobile first approach. This means that websites are now being designed for mobile devices first and then being adjusted for larger screen sizes like desktops. Customer opinion supports this practice as 85% of web users think a company’s mobile website should be as good as or better than their desktop website.
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 eConsultancy 62% of companies that designed a website specifically for mobile had increased sales.
Whether you’ve already got a website or you’re planning your first web design, having a mobile friendly and responsive website should be at the top of your priorities. Partnering with a web design & web development company who specialise in responsive WordPress websites and has a team of experienced responsive website designers and developers is essential to achieve an optimal mobile user experience for your customers.