Responsive website design (RWD) is a user-friendly design that enables your site to resize or adapt itself dynamically on whatever device it is viewed on irrespective of the screen size. In other words, you can view your site easily both on a small screen like your mobile, and a big screen like desktop the same way. The panning and scrolling are diminished greatly with this technique. The design boosts user experience, improves conversion rates, and brings better exposure for your site.
Why not Mobile Apps?
Many people would wonder why to go for a responsive design when there are mobile apps! Mobile apps are used for a certain specific purpose only. They are used in brands that have a loyal customer base. The apps help to find store locations, access your account, and find about special offers. But as the name implies, the site responds optimally to any medium it is present on. For instance, a site can have three columns and a single sidebar when viewed from a desktop, whereas from a mobile or tablet a simplified version with fewer columns and simple navigation is present.
Why it is Imperative for Websites to Embrace them?
Before we go into the reasons for turning your website into a responsive one, let us look at the statistics first.
• A recent survey has revealed that mobile shopping has increased tremendously. In 2013 alone, over $38.8 billion has been spent in the United States.
• 21% of visitors access the web via their mobiles only.
• 67% of people prefer a mobile friendly website for doing their online shopping.
• Mobile internet usage is expected to dominate desktop web usage in 2014.
With all gadgets becoming smart now, it is the sensible, practical, and profitable way to change your website into a responsive one.
Listening to Reasons
Other than the statistics which certainly make the picture clear, there are some strong and definite reasons that make the change a vital one.
• Mobile usage has taken over – With mobiles being the way people communicate, transact, do business and all another routine day to day activities, making your website mobile friendly should feature prominently in your marketing strategy.
• User-friendly feature – Not being mobile friendly can make your users recoil from your site altogether. On the other hand, a mobile-friendly site will make the retention chances increase incredibly.
• Increased traffic by mobile visitors – Blogs and social media concepts in your marketing campaign will cause an increase in the mobile traffic as social media is more active in the mobile devices. A lack of accessible element can lead to increased bounce rates, reduced conversion, and negative feedback.
• SEO friendly – Google has recommended the responsive design over the mobile templates as the performance rate is better here.
• Reduced loading time – With a receptive web design, the time lag between loading on a desktop and a mobile device is reduced greatly leading to speedy and instant loading which keeps the visitors happy and increases the traffic and conversions.
How Your Website and Business Benefit from it?
With an ideal design, you can bring about easy navigation, page access, and also access while on the move. A fast download time, flexible compatibility, greater conversion, and better sales is possible. You can even see direct sales from the mobile users. Users can be lured to the site even if they are offline. This is because the responsive design uses HTML 5, which enables users to easily subscribe to the newsletters and contents that they can view during the move without any hassles.
Downsides You should Note about
Though it may look easy, developing such a website is a knotty process. Optimizing your site for all the mobile devices takes time, skilled professionals, and a project manager to oversee the process. The initial setup costs may be high, but you need to understand that a responsive design alone is not enough for a website to flourish. Smart monitoring of the traffic including the demographics and earlier visits of the customers should be analyzed to boost the traffic and get more conversions. Evaluating the customer mindset and turning it to your advantage is important too.
To maintain the edge over your competition and keep up with the latest trends, a highly flexible design is vital. For an unrivalled position globally, you need to pull out all stops and get your business to the mobile-savvy population, and a responsive website is a right step in that direction.