Responsive website design is a web development approach that is a framework to create dynamic changes by hiding, shrinking, moving, and adjusting the content on the website depending on the screen size and orientation of the device being used to view it. It is highly recommended and beneficial that your website design is mobile responsive as it enhances the user experience. A responsive website design is a one-stop solution for developing websites that can be viewed in tiny phones to huge desktop monitors.
A mobile responsive website design is helpful to view the content and asset of your website to any user via smartphones. It was reported in 2020 that 57% of users would not recommend a business that does not have or have poorly designed mobile responsive website design. A mobile responsive website design is significantly beneficial for any business to thrive as 75% of the consumers search their mobiles for addressing their immediate needs. A responsive website design also increases consumer attraction on a two-fold basis as people these days more through mobiles rather than through other technological mediums.
A responsive website design will also increase traffic and sales on the website of the business. It was officially stated by Google that they prefer responsive websites. According to a report from SimilarWeb in 2015 it was seen that half of the traffic in popular websites came from mobile devices. Google has over 67% of the market share and hence their opinions highly matter. Google recommends that responsive websites as the best recommended industry practices due to mobile configuration. A responsive website design has one URL and HTML across all devices, which makes it easier for Google to organize and categorize the content. Google can easily share and interact with the users through one website and track them conveniently. This enhances an optimal user experience and is a significant ranking factor for your business needs, hence it is vital to have a responsive website design.
It saves time and costs for businesses as they have to manage only one website at a time, instead of managing both desktop and mobile versions. A responsive website design also provides the best usability for your customers as the websites are compatible to work on any device used by the customer. It is significantly important for website design to work smoothly across all screen size so that user does not experience discomfort due to distorted images or poor site architecture. A responsive website design is currently being preferred by businesses across the globe due to its greater versatility and lower development costs.
A responsive website design also reduces the development costs for businesses, as they have to invest only in responsive website design which takes comparatively lesser time than stand-alone mobile applications. It would also be beneficial in the long run as it saves maintenance costs, special configuration costs, and other costs which are encountered if a business has two separate versions.
Businesses can also save time on additional testing and support which is required while maintaining a separate mobile site. On the contrary responsive website design uses standardized testing methodologies which ensures optimal layout across every screen size. A responsive website design follows a “one size fits all” strategy which reduces the extra efforts of developers, consumers, and business owners. The time saved can be used effectively on other vital aspects like marketing and content creation for businesses to thrive.
A responsive website design provides an optimized user experience, as the customers will spend more time on the website to explore more about your business services. However, if your website design isn’t responsive customers are less likely to be engaged in your website and they will bounce.
Once the bounce rates are decreased, the next step is to create a consistent user experience across all screen sizes to convert new customers. Redirecting customers to a device-specific website is time-consuming and it increases the chances to lose customers. A single responsive website design creates a more professional experience and hence will prevent frustrated customers to go to competitor websites.
Responsive website design will assist you in saving time by managing your one specific website with a single set of hyperlinks. Meanwhile, you can focus on a unified strategy of brand promotion through SEO optimization of your website to boost your business growth. The higher your website is on search ranks, the easier it is to attract potential customers. Responsive website design is a highly trending preference for local as well as retail businesses across the globe. Low-level content duplication will also be prevented across sites, as you have to focus only on a single site to enhance your profits. This will also improve the chances of your website being ranked higher in search engines. Search engines are assessing and analyzing the content of websites according to the importance. Having desktop and mobile versions of your website might result in lower search engine rankings as there might be confusion about which content is more relevant. You would also require two SEO strategies to handle both versions. Having a single URL makes sure that your content is original and unique rather than being duplicated and hence result in higher search engine ranks.
A single responsive website design will help you narrow your monitoring and analysis as you don’t have to trace your customer journeys, conversion paths and funnels, and redirection between your sites. Advanced site analytic tools are now equipped to handle multiple devices and responsive reporting.
Responsive website design enables an offline browsing experience as most of the smartphones are HTML 5 enabled and hence provides your customers to browse about your brand without an internet connection. Most businesses especially the ones operating on a small scale basis, do not have much time and resources at their disposal to maintain two websites. A responsive website design will make it easier to handle your website quickly and efficiently. Responsive website design reduces your time and efforts in handling multiple websites by saving time on redirecting links and bringing in the right potential customers to your website.
The advantage of responsive website design is significantly more compared to the disadvantages. Responsive website designs are however not compatible with complex websites which use specific mobile functions. In this case, a mobile-friendly website design will be more beneficial than a responsive website design.
One should also make sure that your business has a fast-loading responsive website design. If not executed properly, the mobile version of your website might slow down thereby reversing the benefits of responsive website design.
A responsive website design is the need of the hour for all types of business websites. Ranging from promoting your website to boosting your sales, increasing website traffic to gain more conversions, a responsive website design serves it all. You can effectively design a responsive website design for simple to complex websites by considering costs and the platform it is being built for.