What is Responsive Design?
Responsive design allows webpages to respond to the size of the screen or browser that is being used. This allows for a better viewing experience for the user and makes the webpages easier to navigate. Have you ever landed on a site that had really small font and was extremely hard to read? That’s because it was only made for larger screens, probably only desktops. In the past, before responsive design was a thing, you had to have a website for desktops and a separate one for mobile; that is no longer the case.
Why do I Need It?
Take a look at what type of device you are using now to read this. Is it your desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone? Each of those devices have different screen sizes and responsive design allows the same webpage to look its best on each screen. Mobile browsing surpassed desktop usage in 2016 and the number of mobile users keeps rising. More and more people are using their mobile devices in place of desktop computers. This should tell you that you need a responsive design with your website. Most viewers will leave your website if it doesn’t look great on the device they are using.
Google prefers mobile friendly websites and actually prioritizes them in search algorithms. They’re pretty much saying “this is what we want and if you give it to us, we will reward you.” Since Google gets you the most traffic to your site, you probably want to follow what they want.
Customers
Customers are going to want to see a website that is easy to navigate and is visually appealing no matter what device they are on. They will leave faster than they can say “yuck” to your site.
The Future
Technology is constantly changing and responsive design keeps up with the trends. It’s here now and it’s going to be here for the long run. It works with all web browsers and is visually pleasing on all devices.
Now that you have some knowledge on responsive design and why it is important, why don’t you check your own site and see if it needs an upgrade. Google loves responsive design so much that it has a nifty tool to check if it is mobile friendly; check it out here. If it fails the test or you aren’t happy with what you see, get in touch and I will let you know how I can help!