Did you know that 60% of all online web traffic comes from mobile devices? With such a large percentage of users accessing the web from their smartphones, you would think that most websites, if not all, would look pretty and perform well on mobile devices. But they don’t.
The truth is that an abysmally small number of websites use responsive design. For example, a 2014 report found that only 9% of “etail” sites perform well across devices including desktop, tablet, and mobile phone. These 9% of responsive sites not only look good and perform better than their peers, but they all get ranked higher in search results.
On April 21, 2015, Google made the biggest change to its algorithm in years: Websites that are not responsive will be ranked lower in mobile searches. Dubbed “Mobilegeddon” by the media, this event led many large companies who had avoided responsive web design, for whatever reason, to panic. But the evidence is clear that it paid off for those who did embrace responsive design.
The United Way of the Bay Area, a nonprofit organization, set out to redesign their site to achieve a few key goals. These included minimizing costs, increasing online donations, and increasing online viewer retention rates (minimize bounce rates). By designing a responsive website, United Way increased mobile sessions by over 34%, increased tablet sessions by over 21%, and generated 28% growth in year-over-year online donations.
A responsive website makes your company look good, makes your users happy because they can easily access the information they need from your site, and makes Google and other search engines rank your site higher than non-responsive sites.
Check it out: Test your website’s responsiveness
Not sure if your site is responsive? Google has created a tool for you to find out. Check it out here: Mobile-Friendly Test
Why do I need responsive design?
If a website is “responsive,” it simply means that it looks good and performs well across the range of devices that can access the Web: mainly desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile phone, with the same code. This is important for a number of reasons:
1. Web searches on mobile have eclipsed desktop searches
60% of searches are now performed on mobile devices. This means that an increasing number of users are accessing your site from mobile devices. If your site does not perform well or look good on mobile, your bounce rates will continue to rise.
2. 89% of users’ time spent in media is through mobile apps
Social media is fast becoming the top destination for content discovery.Research shows that an overwhelming majority of time spent on these sites is accessed from mobile devices. This means that when a user discovers your content in their Facebook newsfeed and clicks on it, your site needs to be responsive to mobile, or the user will close your page rather quickly.
3. “Mobile-friendly” is not responsive
If you redirect your mobile users to a subdomain, such as mobile.example.com, you are not providing your users with a consistent user experience. These sites tend to look outdated, perform poorly compared to their responsive peers, and oftentimes look and feel different than your desktop website – which may confuse your customers.
A responsive website maintains the same user experience across all devices. This is because it is the same design and code that simply responds differently depending on which device is accessing the code.
4. Google demands it
Google updated their search algorithm on April 21, 2015. Websites that are not responsive will rank lower on mobile searches than sites that are responsive.
Conclusion
In the 20th century, your storefront was brick and mortar, and your customers were those who walked by. Today and in the future, your new storefront – regardless of what you sell – is your website. Although your website used to be accessed primarily from desktop computers, mobile internet searches already eclipsed desktop searches in 2014. There is a clear trend towards accessing the Web from mobile devices. This trend will only continue as devices and internet speeds improve, technology becomes cheaper, and younger generations with no memory of the world without smartphones become consumers.
Just like the brick and mortar architecture of the real world, your website architecture needs updating. My company, Nyentek, serves small businesses & startups with local, professional web design and development. Give us a call today for a free consultation.
The
Internet took off faster than anyone would have expected, growing like
thunder. Now, from past few years, the mobile users continue on growing
and the expansion of mobile web usage has made online businesses
thinking about ways to become findable on various mobile devices. And that's lead to responsive web design.
As
per the recent updated from Search Engine giant Google having a
responsive website is must if you want to take your business to mobile
users.
Let see how some of the known web resources describe "Responsive Design"
Responsive
web design (RWD) is an approach to web design aimed at crafting sites
to provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience—easy reading
and navigation with a minimum of re-sizing, panning, and
scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors
to mobile phones) - From Wikipedia
Responsive
Web design is the approach that suggests that design and development
should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen
size, platform and orientation. The practice consists of a mix of
flexible grids and layouts, images and an intelligent use of CSS media
queries. - From Smashing Magazine
Responsive
Web Design is about using CSS and HTML to re-size, hide, shrink,
enlarge, or move the content to make it look good on any screen. - From w3schools
If you have any additional queries or need assistance in developing a responsive website or app then feel free to reach me on AISTechnolabs.com
If you want to check your website for responsive than use this tool, hope it helps you.
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