Nowdays it’s imperative that your website is responsive

For those who may not know, responsiveness refers to the way your website ‘responds’ to different devices and screen sizes. So regardless of the device the user is viewing the website on, the page and its element will automatically reformat, resize or reposition themselves (sometimes change content entirely) to maximise usability and create a better user experience. Due to the vast difference in screen sizes out there, responsive behaviour ensures your website’s content doesn’t look too cramped on small screens, or too sparse on big screens.

Perhaps the most significant part of this topic though is responsive behaviour for mobile devices. The number of website views on mobile devices is skyrocketing and shows no sign of slowing down. Having a responsive website has a number of benefits, most notably the SEO benefit of Google recommendations.

The shift towards mobile

Recent statistics reveal just how huge the shift to mobile devices has been in the last few years. The stats show that there are more than 4 billion people worldwide (that’s well over half the population) using the internet, with much of the growth in this connectivity attributed to the increasing affordability of smart phones and mobile data plans.

Due to the increasingly likely nature that visitors to your website will be on a mobile device or tablet, it is becoming ever more important to ensure users can navigate your website on a size reduced platform. The functionality on each device is crucial to the user experience.

Google recommendations

In 2015 Google introduced a new way of ranking websites in their search results based on their usability. Websites that are fully responsive and mobile friendly are now rewarded with higher ranking in searches that include their keywords. More recently, Google have made a new attempt to improve mobile web experience. They have started implementing mobile-first indexing strategies by ranking and indexing a site based on their mobile version of the website over the desktop version, making responsive websites more important than ever.

Benefits of fully responsive websites

The main benefit of a fully responsive website is its user experience. Having a flexible site that can adjust to fit the users screen makes the site infinitely easier to navigate.

A well designed site that is optimised for a user friendly experience will speak volumes to your customer and create a positive perception of your brand and business. Their positive experience will likely result in them returning to you for more business in the future. With the increasing trend towards mobile users its important that you cater to this audience.

Sites that are mobile friendly generally load faster which is also likely to positively effect your ranking and decrease your bounce rate on visitors to the site. The sites speed can also make sharing on social platforms far easier and in turn grow your audience.

Mobile friendly websites are the new industry standard – are you keeping up? If you have any questions, just drop us a line, we’re happy to help! Get in touch and we can discuss your web needs today.