2014: The Year of Responsive Web Design

2014: The Year of Responsive Web Design

Learn Why Your Website Needs A Responsive Website Design in 2014

If you depend on your website to get business, you need a responsive website in 2014. Each day, the number of platforms, browsers, and devices that your website must be compatible with grows. Responsive web design provides an optimal user experience across a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. Flexible images, fluid grids, and media queries are used to design a website that responds to its environment.

Responsive websites are easy to read and navigate on any device. They require minimal scrolling, resizing, and panning because they adapt to the user’s screen. A responsive website delivers users a full view of your website from a desktop or laptop computer. The page retracts and stacks elements for optimal viewing and usability on a smartphone or tablet.

Responsive web design provides a great user experience and consistent branding across all devices. This gives prospective customers a strong first impression from the moment they land on your website.

Why Mobile Is the Future

According to a report by comScore, consumers now spend more time interacting with online retailers on mobile phones and tablets than they do on laptops and desktops. The report also mentioned that nearly two-thirds of smartphone owners use a mobile web browser to research product features and more than half use a mobile web browser to find a store location as well as coupons and deals.

Google reported that 67% of people are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly website. That’s why it’s essential to make your website mobile-friendly if you haven’t already. Your options are to create a separate mobile website or a responsive website. In 2014, the industry best practice is considered to be responsive web design. We outline some of the reasons why below:

• Cost-Effectiveness
  Prior to the existence of responsive web design, webmasters would create multiple versions of a website to suit each type of device. Thanks to responsive web design, you only need to create one website for all devices with a single content management system to update the content. This saves you both time and money.

• SEO Benefits
  Responsive websites have a single URL and the same HTML regardless of device, which makes it easier for major search engines to crawl and index them. On the other hand, if you have a separate mobile website with a different URL and HTML, search engines are required to crawl and index multiple versions of the same website.
  
  Creating a responsive website also means that you only have to market, build links to, and optimize one website as opposed to several. That being said, setting up a mobile-specific SEO campaign is still worthwhile because some keywords are more likely to be searched for on mobile devices.
  
  Site quality is an important ranking factor. Major search engines are less likely to rank websites well in mobile search if they aren’t optimized for mobile devices. This is because they provide a poor viewing experience for mobile users and have high bounce rates.

• Conversion Optimization
  The more hoops you make mobile users jump through to complete a conversion, the less likely they are to convert. Responsive web design boosts your website’s conversion rates from mobile users because it makes your website easy to read, navigate, and use on mobile devices. Responsive design also gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of determining how content is displayed when you switch from one device to another.
   

Capture Visitors and Conversions with a Responsive Website

Responsive web design is a cost-effective approach to creating a mobile-friendly website. Instead of building three separate websites for desktops and laptops, mobile phones, and tablets, you can create a single website that is optimized for all devices.

Interested in Responsive Website Design?

efelle is a Seattle web design firm specializing in web design for professional services, website content management, search engine optimization and many other online marketing services. If you’re redesigning your website in 2014, consider switching to a responsive design. Call 206.384.4909 or fill out an online contact form to get in touch with a responsive web design specialist for more information.