We all know how important it is to have a mobile friendly web design at this day and age. Almost everybody uses their smartphone or tablet to browse the Internet. Despite that, many websites still haven’t adapted to these user habits with responsive design. Some are still using mobile-dedicated websites or worse, are still serving their desktop sites to mobile users. If you belong in either of these categories, here are some reasons why responsive web design is the answer.
Responsive design is the answer if you depend on search engine optimization to get traffic to your site. When you work on search campaign for your responsive site, you are building content and links for both the mobile and desktop version of your website. With a separate mobile-dedicated site, you have to double your efforts into your search campaign. Plus, Google actually recommends that you use responsive design.
It’s the answer if you want to provide the best user experience possible for all users.
It’s not just about smartphones, people are browsing the Internet from many different devices from alarm clocks, tablets, watches, to TVs. Responsive design can adapt to a wide variety of screen sizes, devices, and browsers. For this reason, you are making sure that all your users are getting a positive viewing experience.
It’s the answer if you want to make your website easy to manage and maintain. Yes, responsive website can get technical and does require that you invest in a good designer. However, it also allows you to stay focused on one site. You can quickly change your layout, graphics, etc. This saves a lot of money and time in the long term, while also saving you from headache if you ever decide to go through a big redesign project.
It’s the answer if you want to be capitalize on social media. Many users access social media sites on a daily basis. If you do any kind of marketing on social media, then you owe it to yourself to go with responsive web design. Doing this will ensure that you deliver a great experience to social media users (who are probably browsing on their smartphones) and that you clearly brand one website URL rather than two URLs (if you have a separate mobile site).
Some of the marketers that oppose switching to responsive do so because of the costs involved. Larger websites can build up substantial costs trying to switch to mobile. However, they’ll find that the development and design costs will be well worth the investment in the long term. Switching to responsive may be more affordable for smaller companies and even if the companies don’t have the budget, there are many affordable themes that come with simple responsive design. There is no reason not to give it a try.