What is Responsive Web Design?

Dictionary definition of responsive: “Reacting quickly and positively.”

But what does this mean when it comes to responsive web design ?

What is responsive web design?

In simple terms, when a website is responsive, it is developed and designed in such a way that is responds to the user, changing to suit their behaviour. This includes varying the screen size, orientation and content according to the equipment being used.

With responsive design, no matter how your website is being viewed, it will adapt. For instance, if one of your clients starts to use their mobile phone and then switches to their laptop, or vice-versa, the website will adjust to suit. They will have no problem with image or text size, nor with poor resolution. Similarly, no matter what platform they are using, the website will accommodate it.

When a professional website designer
makes your site responsive, they will make sure that it will have the technology built-in to respond automatically to each user’s preferences.

This means you don’t need to have two websites; one mobile design and one for desktop use. And as new equipment comes onto the market, your website will keep up with it, removing the need to get your site changed each time a new gadget appears.

Why have a responsive web design?

All businesses need to have a mobile version of their website, and ensuring that your site is responsive takes care of this. If you don’t, you could easily end up losing customers as they get frustrated when your unresponsive site doesn’t adjust to suit their iPhone, iPad, Blackberry or Kindle etc.

Responsive web design should not be thought of as purely the ‘latest fad’ in the field of technology. Far from that, it helps deal with many problems that may face your website without it. When you realise that the result is viewers spending more time on your site, you begin to understand the importance of responsive design.

Even better, search engines love responsive design so it will even help to hike up your rankings. Without it, your clients will find themselves frustrated, having to re-size, scroll and zoom in and out, eventually giving up and going away.

Our society is now totally multi-screen, hence it is essential that your website is viewable across all devices. With the number of mobile viewers outnumbering those that use a desktop, this figure is bound to increase as the use of smartphones increases.

Benefits of having a responsive website

But don’t just take our word for it; let’s take a look at the benefits you will receive by making your website responsive:

• Cost-effective
  You can throw away the idea of having two sites – one mobile and one for desktops. This used to be the norm, with businesses having to support two sites. With a responsive design, you just need one that will accommodate all viewing devices.
• Flexibility
  When you do need to make changes, this can be done via the one site. Tweaking designs and adding or removing text and/or images is straightforward and it only has to be done once.
• Users will love your site
  Your user experience will rocket with more people liking your site and using it repeatedly. Viewing your site on their mobile will be fast and easy, making your company seem professional and up-to-date because you are making use of the latest technology. If your site looks old-hat and behind the times, people will not wait for you to fix it but will go elsewhere. They want to be able to view your site easily no matter their device. When your site enables them to do this, their experience is immediately a positive one.
• Google will love your site too!
  SEO (search engine optimization) is a strategy used to boost the rankings of your site. When you are close to the top, customers will find you more quickly. Search engines like Google will give preference to a website that is responsive and mobile friendly. When your SEO is on-mark, your website will be able to work harder for you, producing results that are more powerful in terms of number of viewers and conversions.
• User-friendly website management
  You may not have time to update your website, preferring your website designer to take care of it. However, if you do want to make small revisions, when your site is responsive, changes can be made easily and speedily. When sorting out your online marketing, you only have one site to link to from social media so don’t have to wonder about whether your redirect links are taking customers to the right place. A responsive site is a stress-free one.

How to avoid glitches when making your site responsive

By now you may be wondering whether responsive websites are overrated. After all, can they really do so much? The answer has to be ‘yes’.

Whereas no website can ever be perfect, ensuring that your site is geared up in this way will remove so many of your marketing headaches.

By making use of the services of a professional website designer, expert in the field of responsive design, he will take care of everything, even the glitches that some people run into when trying to make their site responsive themselves:

Your responsive website designer will do all the following:
• Make sure that your site looks good on all devices
• Make it possible for your site to make different things available to certain users
• Sort out the resizing of banner ads
• Ensure that your site is unique and 100% a match for your brand

Responsive websites are preferred by viewers

Research carried out as to the advantages and benefits of website statistics confirm that having a website set up in this way is the best choice to make. Think about it this way: 61% of users on a mobile state they will leave your site if it won’t load or view correctly or they cannot find what they want quickly. Overall, responsive websites are preferred by the majority of users, mainly because it makes their browsing process so much better.

If you weren’t hooked on the many advantages of responsive websites when you started reading this article, by now you should be! If you are not sure whether your site is responsive of not, get a website designer to check it out for you. By taking into account the cost and time savings created by the use of a responsive website, it really is a ‘no decision decision’. All up-to-date web strategies need to take account of responsive design, and you need to be sure that yours is one of them.

Investing in a responsive website is a good investment for your business. If you would like to know how it would work for your company and how much it will cost, have a conversation with a website designer experienced in this field. They will be able to discuss preliminary costing with you as well as point out other benefits that we may have missed. It will cost you nothing to get a free of charge quote, customised to suit your website. Today is the day to find out more about making your site fully responsive.