Since around the start of 2014, people are spending more time on their mobile devices than on their computers.
Tech like smartphones, tablets, and PDAs are being used extensively for surfing the web, researching, shopping online, emailing, using social media, finding local businesses, making restaurant reservations, buying tickets, and everything else the internet does.
Your website must function cleanly on all the devices out there, or you’re losing a lot of business. This means your site has to load quickly, display attractively, and work well on all sorts of devices with different screen sizes, resolutions, processing speeds, and other formatting and operational factors.
Responsive web design refers to developing websites that do just that.
What Is Responsive Website Design?
Responsive websites are coded to display with different page layout, navigation, imagery, and calls to action that suit the size and specs of the screen and device they’re loaded on. Most importantly, responsive design provides adaptable navigation for visitors using anything from a 10-finger keyboard to just a thumb or stylus.
Don’t confuse responsive web design with mobile website design. When mobile tech was first emerging, the only solution was to build two versions of websites—one for computers and one for mobile devices. Now, there’s a convenient, more cost-effective, more practical way around the problem. Responsive web design entails building one site for both types of devices.
Why Do You Need Responsive Design?
Responsive web design has passed the point of being recommended. It’s now necessary for continued internet survival for just about any type of business.
- Your customers are browsing and buying on mobile devices. If your site isn’t easy and pleasant to use, they won’t use it.
- Significant social media and email activity takes place on mobile tech now. If your social media or email marketing drives traffic to a non-responsive site, your efforts and expenditure are in vain.
- People expect sites to work well on mobile devices now. If yours doesn’t, it reflects poorly on your brand promise, sending the message that you’re not modern, convenient, or invested in great service.
- Google likes responsive design. It prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in search results to continue providing web users with what they want.
