How Responsive Is Your Web Design?

So the day has finally arrived.  

You along with your team members are all excited to launch your company's new website – an identity of yourself. A brand that you painstakingly developed; your baby which you so carefully nurtured over the past couple of months. 

The questions are: 

• Will your web pages perform the way you’ve predicted?

• Will your targeted customers find their way to your products and services?

• Will you generate enough traffic to convert leads and boost your sales funnel?

It really doesn’t matter how good your web page designs are or how excellent your content is. If the user or prospective clients, who visit your website via their smartphones or tablets, don’t receive a smooth and seamless browsing experience; within seconds they will vanish from your site and yes -THEY WILL LAND ON YOUR COMPETITOR’S TURF.  

"Are you being responsive?"

I’m sure we’ve all come across browsing experiences on our tablets where we ‘zoomed-out’ to find the exit button; or tilted our smartphone to click the ‘next' button or worse - missed a whole section at the edge of the web page on our iPhone offering free articles and podcasts. All because the contents did not display fully or in other words, the pages/designs were not adaptive or ‘responsive’. 

What is ‘Responsive Design’?

Simply put, Responsive Design is an approach or method in designing websites, such that it is automatically customized to display on the users’ device - be it a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone, a phablet or a kindle. Since the advent of this approach - responsive web design - in 2010, as coined by Ethan Marcotte, the world of internet marketing, web designs, and online experience have grown at a break-neck speed.

The idea goes beyond the confined edges of web pages. It takes into consideration the behavioral aspects of the users and enhances their online experience. Irrespective of the device, a responsive website adapts fluidly to the viewers’ screen sizes giving an optimized and consistent viewing experience.

(Patrolapart Responsive website.  Designed by Element 7 Digital)

Perks of building a responsive website:

1. Just work on a single website –slashed development costs.

With responsive web design in place, there isn't any need to design multiple websites to cater to various devices and screen sizes. All the time and effort can be applied to building and maintaining a single responsive website, which automatically adapts to all screen sizes and handheld devices. A sizeable portion of the development and maintenance cost is saved by working on a single site. 

2. Visitor bounce rates are lower, conversions higher.

Imagine the frustration of the users visiting your website that is not responsive. They would rather leave than perish by pinching and scrolling around to explore the content. Such bounce rates are drastically minimized by having a responsive site where users instead glide around smoothly, maximizing the chances on conversions. 

3. Google likes responsive websites- increased page rankings.

Search engines, Google, in particular, have been favoring responsive websites in their search results. If someone performs a search query on their smartphone, rather than directing to rigid desktop versions, Google is more likely to direct the searches to a mobile responsive website, which in turn increases the traffic and page rankings.

4. Competitive edge from your competition.

It is clearly an easy advantage to you if your competitors are still sticking with their non-responsive web designs. You beat the competition by miles with a responsive design, attracting all the visitors who will be having a much satisfying browsing experience- leading higher probability with your sales.  

Responsive web designs have definitely been the buzz for a few years now.

It has been getting huge industry ‘nods' and adding substantial value to the users' experience and the inbound marketing game.

It is, however, a complex process and comes with a steep learning curve. Seeking the right ability and best industry practices is a sure way to reap its multi-layered benefits.

If you would like to know more or would like to contribute to this article I want to hear from you. Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249-5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au.

Our full story element7digital.com.au