February 3, 2016
Is your website responsive?
Responsive websites are critical to how your website performs on Google listings. The way of the desktop website has now diminished with mobile and tablets leading the way. Desktop websites are still critical to your business but if you want success in the digital age a mobile friendly site is critical.
Take the test! and see if you website is mobile friendly, if not it could be a good time to think about the next stages of website.
As of April 21st 2015, Google will use mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal in search results, rewarding websites that are fully optimized for mobile platforms
The number of smartphone users internationally will surpass 2 billion in 2016. Websites not optimised for these smaller screens can experience a decline in their search engine rankings. Over 60% of searches now come from a mobile device. To ensure your website offers an experience tailored to handheld devices (without creating a separate app), consider why responsive design for mobile can be the solution.
What is Responsive Web Design (RWD)?
In the past, more than one site was built in order to accommodate different screen sizes.
Responsive Web Design creates a system for a single site to react to the size of a user’s device—with one URL and one content source. A responsive website has a fluid and flexible layout which adjusts according to screen size, offering an optimized browsing experience.
Basically, your website will look great and work well on a desktop/laptop, a tablet, and a phone’s browser.
Benefits of responsive design for mobile
The number one benefit of a responsive layout is the guarantee that any user on any device will have the best experience possible on your website, and the most consistent. It’s also a great way to refine the content on your site, making sure that those using a mobile device are only seeing the most essential information.
With the new Google algorithm update, a responsive web design increases visibility on search engines—because it is mobile-friendly. A site with an effective mobile experience will show up on search results above one without.
Why responsive design is good for business
- Increase reach to customers and clients on smaller devices (tablets & smartphones)
- Providing a consistent experience can increase lead generation, sales and conversions
- Analytics, tracking and reporting can be consolidated in one place
- Time and cost on site content management is decreased
- Stay ahead of the competition (even 44% of Fortune 500 companies are not mobile-ready at this time!)
Note, that there are two other methods by which to offer a mobile-friendly experience. The first is called Dynamic Serving, which uses the same URL but different HTML and CSS code. Pages recognize the device they are viewed on, and serve up the correct code.
The second method, is a separate mobile site altogether. When users visit on a mobile device, they are sent to a different mobile-specific URL.
As long as the correct steps are taken to optimize fully for mobile users, the most useful method really depends on any given situation. Figure out which works the best for your online presence, before diving into it.