AND WHY WOULD I NEED ONE?
A responsive website is one that has been designed to respond well when displayed on mobile devices – it is able adapt to multiple screen sizes including desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile screens.
In a responsive website, content appears differently on each device, with text, navigation tools and images arranged to deliver a usable interface and a better aesthetic for each device.
On a responsive website, it is easy to cater for different clientele through the design of one centralised site with businesses able to deliver relevant information to targeted users.
For example, when a mobile user searches for a business, often a map or a phone number will be the most important piece of information, but when a desktop user searches, they are likely to be looking for more extensive information about products and services.
A further benefit is that you don’t need to build and maintain a separate mobile website for your business, nor do you need to build and maintain a suite of mobile apps to cater for all the various devices on the market.
For the user, usability and user experience are just as important as the delivery of relevant information. If the right content is present, but unreadable, it is useless. A responsive website will automatically resize and layout content for easy navigation with minimal scrolling, panning and resizing across devices.
With more users now researching about products on their mobile devices (44% of them make purchases or inquire about the business afterwards) having a responsive site is critical. On its website, Google recently referred to responsive website design (RWD) as a “best practice” for people conducting SEO on their websites. The main reason for this is that websites with RWD have only one URL and HTML, making it easier and more efficient for Google to crawl, index, and organize content.
Designing a responsive website is no more costly than designing a regular website, but a website that converts browsers into leads and assist in converting leads into customers’ needs a well thought out strategy. It is an investment worth considering for optimum conversion rates.