Nowadays, with technology constantly evolving, screen sizes changing, and people using a multitude of different devices to surf the internet, businesses need to know about responsive web design to give every user the best possible website experience. However, it’s not just for user experience – it drastically impacts SEO and SERP rankings.
What Is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive web design is the practice of ensuring your website appears perfectly across all devices and screen sizes. By this, we mean that if someone were to pick up their laptop, iPhone, Kindle, or any other device, and land on your website, they would be presented with a variation of your web design that scales to their screen without impacting usability or readability.
What Is the Purpose of Responsive Web Design?
Responsive web design seeks to provide users with the best possible experience when on your website. Its purpose is to make your website easy to use, simplify the user journey, and keep users engaged with your content. The more thorough and effective your responsiveness, the more likely a user will connect with your brand, products, or service, resulting in a conversion.
Why Is Responsive Web Design Important?
Users
Without responsive web design, users are highly unlikely to engage with your content and stay on your website for a prolonged period of time. Nowadays, users are impatient. We want to be presented with the information we’re seeking immediately. If a website makes that challenging or confusing, we’ll bounce and look elsewhere. Additionally, there’s an element of trust involved. Businesses with a website that isn’t responsive or mobile-optimized appear to be less established and trustworthy to users.
SEO & Crawlers
Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to the amount of traffic that lands on your website. With over 50% of website traffic now from mobile, search engine crawl bots now reward responsive websites with higher rankings. The more mobile-friendly your website, the higher you’ll rank. In many instances, the vast majority of websites are now ranked on the mobile version of their website rather than desktop. If you haven’t got a responsive web design, you risk a catastrophic decline in search engine rankings that could take months to resolve.
In Summary
You should be implementing responsive web design practices, keeping up to date with the latest device screen sizes and resolutions, and ensuring you’re serving as many people as possible with a tailored and seamless experience.
Not only does a responsive design offer user-friendliness, but it also tells search engines that your website is worth ranking in the higher positions. Overall, if you fail to introduce responsive web design, you risk being left behind.