Responsive design became popular as an idea all the way back in 2013 (that’s a long time by web design standards). Since then it has grown into being the most popular design method for websites, read on to find out why. Essentially, if you are having a new website created or redesigned, this should be one of the first things you discuss with your web designer. It’s that important.

What does “Responsive Web Design” mean?

Responsive web design is simple, it means that your website is able to scale and display nicely on a range of different screen types/sizes (think mobile, tablet and desktop screens). As mobile devices have proliferated and your customer’s mobile browsing traffic has soared it has become more important than ever to make sure your website design works well on multiple screen sizes.

Why do I need a responsive website?

1. Stand Out in a Mobile First World

With mobile web traffic overtaking desktop usage in 2014, it is incredible important to ensure that your website displays effectively on multiple screen sizes. According to Google, 77% of mobile searches are occurring either at either home or work meaning that even where desktop search is available, people are still turning more and more to using their smartphones or tablets. This trend shows no signs of slowing down and is predicted to continue its massive growth through 2015 and beyond.

2. Optimise Your Customer Experience

Mobiforge has reported that 46% of mobile users were unlikely to return to a website that was not easy to view or navigate on their mobile device. This means that a sub-par experience on your website is likely to send your customers back to Google to find a competitor with a website they can view wherever they are. Where your website is the first interaction with your business this statistic becomes even more important – it isn’t likely you will get the chance to make a second impression if a user leaves your site for usability reasons.

3. Lower Overall Website Cost & Maintenance

Before “responsive design” became a key trend in late 2012, it was common for many large businesses to operate two different websites – a mobile website and a desktop website. Each website required its own design and development leading to a huge cost and not effectively dealing with any size screen in between those two form factors (e.g. tablet computers). Responsive design allows you to build and maintain a single site that dynamically changes to create the best experience for your customer regardless of the device they are viewing it on.

4. Improve Your Search Presence

It is no secret that Google likes websites that are mobile friendly but on April 21, 2015 Google will begin to penalise websites that do not meet their “Mobile friendly design” criteria. For any business that gets any traffic at all through ‘organic’ search – you should be focusing on making your website responsive before that date to avoid any penalties and increase your ranking against non-mobile friendly competitors.

If you are interested in updating your site design, or making it more responsive, please get into contact with us here to get started.