Responsive web design is an approach that allows a site’s layout to change according to the visitor’s screen orientation and size. It’s one of the hottest trends these da…
Responsive web design is an approach that allows a site’s layout to change according to the visitor’s screen orientation and size. It’s one of the hottest trends these days due to the growth of mobile devices for online browsing and shopping. Here are a few compelling reasons why it’s the most important feature that you can add to your website:
Supports the Multi-Device User
In these modern times, websites are being visited by different devices and screen sizes. To best support their experience, it’s crucial that your site works well regardless of which device your visitor may be using at a given time. The content they have access to on one device must also be present when they return on another device.
“Lack of consistency in information will compel your visitors to leave your site and take their business elsewhere.”
By designing your website to be responsive, you can ensure consistency in information across all kinds of devices. Since the experience and layout is adjusted to each individual’s screen size, you can be sure that you are doing the best to support your existing and potential customers and not giving them any reason to abandon your site halfway.
Improves SEO Rankings
Search engine giant, Google, has long recommended websites to use responsive web design to support all kinds of mobile devices. However, this recommendation was taken a step further since they began adding the label “Mobile Friendly” to sites that used this approach when they appeared in the search engine results on a mobile device.
As of April 21, 2015, mobile-friendliness has been expanded as a ranking signal and sites that are built responsively for multi-device support are rewarded by Google. Those who don’t, however, are penalized, thus making responsive web design one of the most important factors in search engine optimization strategy plans for all online businesses.
Provides One Site for All Audiences
Considering the fact that it’s hard to keep one website relevant and updated, trying to keep multiple sites consistent and up-to-date is even more challenging. That’s exactly why responsive web design is now widely preferred over the idea of building separate websites for mobile phone users and desktop users.
By having one website to maintain and not to mention, one place to manage that site from, it becomes a whole lot easier to keep your site fresh and updated. You can even make use of different platforms to centralize the management of your site, whilst still having complete control over how it displays on different screens.
Allows for Future Scalability
One of the biggest advantages of responsive web design is that it allows you to support newer devices in the future. Since these sites are fluid, they scale up or down accordingly to best fit the screen of your visitor. Know what that means? Even if new devices enter the market with screens of varying sizes, your site will already have what it takes to provide the users of those new devices with the best experience possible.
All websites, regardless of the target audience they serve or their desired goals, will benefit greatly from a website that works well across multiple devices. After all, it ensures your visitors are provided with the best user experience, which means they are less likely to go elsewhere for what they need and will, ultimately, end up buying from you.
As you can see, being responsive is the way to go as far as website design is concerned. If your site isn’t responsive, you will not see the results you are looking for and might even drive visitors away, which of course you don’t want.