All You Need to Know About Responsive Web Design

 Given the current technology forecast, everyone knows that it’s important to have some type of mobile version for their website. And in the area of web design and development for the last couple of years, it’s been very tricky adjusting and keeping up with the new, endless technological waves of resolutions and device versions. That was, until, Responsive Web Design was created!

What in the World is Responsive Web Design?

When a website is responsive, the content and/or layout of the site automatically responds (or adjusts) to the screen size it’s presented on. The four typical types of screens that responsive sites adjust to are desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile. Essentially, it’s one single website design that adjusts to fit perfectly on any screen size.

How Does it Work?

Responsive web designs are made to have fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries. Before the site loads on the display screen, the user’s web browser is detected to determine how much space is available for presenting the content.

Why Go Responsive? 

Simple: the way a customer views and interacts with content has changed. With so many varieties of screen sizes nowadays, it’s important that you have what it takes to adjust your content accordingly.

In Fact:

• 90% of people use multiple screens sequentially.*
• In the last 3.5 years, the number of mobile users has grown from 800 million to 1.9 billion users.**

What Are the Benefits?

Simple Usability

First of all, responsive design allows you (and your content) to look good on any type of device, including tablets. It enhances user experience because it crosses over platforms, responding to audience and device consumption habits. This takes away from a user’s need to zoom in and out on your site, waste time waiting for your site to load, and presents your content in a way that is easy for users to take in.

Excellent SEO

With a responsive design, you won’t need to individually optimize content and add links to multiple sites for search engine optimization. Responsive design provides one single model to update and optimize cleaner content for all devices, all at once. Learn more about optimizing your website. 

Plus, the URL structure remains the same no matter what device is used, which makes it easy for Google to index your site.

Easy Maintenance 

Why does our Web Services Manager, Chris Jones, love responsive design so much? Not only does it look sleek and is easy on the eyes, “it’s so easy to maintain!”

If you were to create multiple sites for desktop, mobile, and tablet, you’d end up updating every single version every time you had an edit, big or small.

Responsive design is easier to maintain since it’s one single site design for all devices. Web administrators will only need to log into one platform to make any changes. One set of content to update and edit means precious time and money saved for you.

Ultra Sales Booster

Since customers and prospective customers will most likely be visiting your website for more information about your company, it’s absolutely vital that they see a consistent web presence across all platforms.

• Smartphone bounce rates are typically between 50-80%.
• Two-thirds (64%) of smartphone users expect a site to load in less than 4 seconds.
• 85% of mobile users expect a site to load just as fast as a desktop site.***

If a user encounters a problem with the site – either it doesn’t load properly or they have to expend just a little bit more energy to find the information they’re looking for, they’d leave and you’d lose a potential customer!

Responsive sites enhance the user experience, which captures and keeps customers for the long-term.

Have any questions on how to set up your very own Responsive Web Design or what other positive benefits it adds to your overall web marketing presence? Click below to learn more!