Responsive design is one of the most significant trends in website design right now. It is a new website design approach that enables a single website to serve to all kinds of devices: smart phones, tablets, laptops and more. The website responds to the screen size of the device it is being viewed on so the user will always get the best experience.
Use of mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets is skyrocketing so catering for this growing demand is very important. Previously companies may have created a dedicated mobile website for this market; however this has a number of drawbacks. There is a higher maintenance cost in having two websites to update and the user has a disjointed experience of the website as they move between devices.
Research from Google suggests that 90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that is on smart phones, PCs, tablets or TV. Therefore providing a single website for all devices creates a more seamless experience and better ease of use for the user.
Someone investigating products and services online can become frustrated by the differences and changes in content between the normal and mobile website. Responsive design ensures a complete and integrated website across devices that will always work just as users expect them to, helping to increase your conversions of visitors to customers.
Responsive websites can simplify digital marketing as businesses can have a single system to manage their content, marketing programs and SEO. This provides great time savings as well as giving a single point of focus for web strategy. The best return on investment can then be achieved by a fully integrated marketing solution.
Google recommends responsive web design because having a single URL for desktop and mobile sites makes it easier for Google to discover content and for Google’s algorithms to index content.
Responsive design has been adopted by a number of big names like Microsoft, Sony and Starbucks, who have realised the benefits that responsive design offers. This approach ensures the best experience on every type of device no matter the size of the screen. This will also help to future-proof your website on new devices. Less time is spent trying to maintain multiple sites and instead can be focused on one website with one unified maintenance and marketing strategy.
If you want to stay ahead, now is the time to get responsive.