It’s one of the biggest questions that businesses, website users and website builders are grappling with today: How do you make your website look as great on somebody’s mobile phone as it looks on the desktop? Is that even possible? Well, yes, actually, at least to a large extent (and as technology continues to develop every few seconds, it gets even better). Cue responsive web design!
Responsive web design adapts your website to enable people using multiple formats (smartphones, tablets, desktops, etc.) to view your website without going crazy!
What is Responsive Web Design?
The idea behind responsive web design is that a website should be able to respond or adapt to the format the user is surfing from, whether they are sitting at a desktop in the office or surfing on their smartphone in the back of a taxi.
So instead of using “fixed” website elements from the “old days” of web design, responsive web design says, “Hi there. What device are you using? Oh, you’re using a smartphone, I see. Great. Let me just do some magic here, and viola!” Of course, it does this in microseconds that the user wouldn’t even notice. By using a combination of flexible images, layouts, grids and CSS media queries (like the website asking what kind of device you’re using), we can design a website that looks just as good on a smartphone or tablet on the town as it looks back at your office desktop.
What are the Benefits of Responsive Web Design?
Responsive web design gives you several benefits that you absolutely need in today’s business climate:
1. Usability – Loyalty means very little in the mobile web. Even if a customer likes your desktop website and has used it in the past, the vast majority of mobile users will abandon your website in a heartbeat in favor of a more mobile-friendly one while they are out using their smartphones. Responsive web design enables us to make sure your mobile website looks, feels and most of all WORKS great no matter how your customers or potential customers are surfing.
2. From Good SEO to Great SEO – In our last blog installment, we talked about how critical search engine optimization (SEO) is to bringing new visitors to your website when they do a search for your products or services. Responsive web design makes it very easy for Google to index your website so that it shows up near the top no matter what format a user is searching from.
3. Maintenance is a Snap – When mobile first hit the world, some companies had multiple versions of their websites (one for the desktop, one for smartphones, etc.) You can see how that quickly became a headache when it was time to update the website. With responsive web design, you have just one website that adapts to the format it’s being viewed on, which means there is only one website that needs to be updated. Whew!
4. The Competitive Edge – Having a website that works well across platforms gives you a competitive edge because, actually, very few businesses (especially small businesses) have one. Be the business with the website customers want and can use and you can expect sales and leads to expand well beyond the competition! But you can’t afford to wait… more business are waking up to this fact. Be one of the early adopters and snag those customers before anyone else does!
Affordable Web Design is proud to be a pioneer in responsive web design, so contact us today and we can help you get your website set for stun, no matter what size screen your customers are using!