At the end of 2014, out of the 4 billion mobile phones in the world, 1.08 billion are smartphones and 3.05 are SMS enabled. This startling statistic is proof of the importance of mobile usage today. Most people now use mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, for Internet surfing. In fact, many seem to prefer it for activities such as browsing social media outlets, checking emails and doing some online shopping. It is apparent that a website is no longer exclusive to desktop or laptop computer viewing but must adapt itself to a variety of mobile and tablet devices as well, to seamlessly reach everyone. Businesses must now seize the moment by making their website mobile friendly. Soon, this will move from being an advanced marketing action by forward-thinking businesses to a must-have for even the most laggard companies to remain viable online.
What is Responsive Design?
To handle the viewing needs and functionality differences of multiple devices and platforms, you could have a website designed for your desktop users, another for tablets, and yet another for mobile users. The cost of building and maintaining multiple sites would be high, leading to a need for one website that looks equally well and works equally as effectively on all types of devices.
A responsive design does just that; it is a development technique that enables the website to respond to each user’s screen size. This means all of the content, images and structure of the site adjust according to the user’s device. So when a user accesses a site on their desktop, they get the full view of the site but when the same site is accessed on a smartphone or tablet, the site will adjust to fit on the smaller screen.
The Need for Mobile Responsive Website
Why is responsive web design the correct solution for your business? Responsive design addresses the distinct audience shift towards mobile browsing so as to enrich the user experience regardless of device from which a website is viewed. Specifically, a mobile responsive website delivers the following benefits:
- Rich User Experience
Along with high quality content and discoverability, the user experience in the ability to consume web content through the devices of the user’s choice is a definite metric of success of any website. A responsive website allows optimal experience for users by being flexible and adaptive to the screen size of the device being used, such as a smartphone, smart TV or desktop.
- Improved visibility through SEO
Visibility of your website in search engines is of primary consideration to all businesses. Improving search engine rankings, by optimizing content for one website that adjusts to multiple devices is the key to improving visibility. Even Google recommends it, as it is more efficient for Google to bot crawl the site, index and organize all online content, if there is just one URL and the same HTML across all platforms. SEO campaigns are costly and they consume a lot of time, but by creating a responsive website, you will only need to market a single responsive website to improve your rankings and visibility in the search engines.
- Cost Effectiveness
By choosing a responsive web design instead of creating multiple versions of a website to suit each individual device, you require only one website with a single administrative interface, source code, and only one content management system to update the content. Investing in a responsive mobile website saves both time and money in the long term.
- Increased Conversions and Sales
According to a study from ComScore, 55% of social media consumption happens on mobile devices. A user can’t share content on social media if a website isn’t functioning on their mobile device, and they may just get frustrated and leave. No business likes unhappy users. With responsive website, users have an improved site experience and the use of standardized style sheets (CSS) creates a consistent familiar look and feel across all devices. It becomes easier for the user to navigate through different products and services offered on the site and this has a positive impact on the conversion rates. With responsive mobile website there is increased functionality, improved performance and an enhanced user experience, all of which helps increase volume of sales.
- First Mover Advantage to Beat the Competition
Statistics have confirmed that more users are using their mobile devices to search and make purchases online but less than 3% of websites are currently optimized to take full advantage of the mobile web through responsive web design. Particularly if you are in a highly competitive industry, it is imperative to adapt to changing user trends and technologies, like responsive website design. In this case, you will come out the winner, as mobile usage is skyrocketing worldwide.
There is simply no doubt about it: Your business will see definite positive results from a unified responsive site that delivers content across all platforms. Call DirectiveGroup at 1.866.925.9524 and let’s get going today.
