Why choose a responsive design for your business website
First, some background. In 2012, PC sales went down for the first time in over 10 years. Meanwhile, sales of tablets and related devices went up, a lot. Smartphones – do we even use that term any more? Phones are now smart.
The trends are clear – your visitors are now using a huge variety of devices to view your website, and you need to get your message across effectively, whatever device it’s being viewed on.
One option might be to use a mobile app to show some content optimised for mobile phones – but let’s look at the alternative.
Responsive design means that your users are served with the same content, but the design responds to the device in use. Your website will display effectively on any device, remaining readable, with logical navigation.
Responsive design is great for search engines
Here are a few reasons why – for one thing, the same URLs are used, so no worries about duplicate content. That’s good for indexing and good for sharing – if a mobile user shares a link with a PC user, both view the site optimally.
Bounce rates are reduced, users stay longer on the site.
Other advantages of responsive design
Maintenance – responsive design means that only one version of your site needs to be maintained.
Cost – developing one site is much more cost-effective than building and maintaining multiple sites to cater for all users.
Versatility – users of larger phones and tablets are stuck between a limited ‘mobile’ site and the ‘wide screen’ version. A responsive design should give them a great user experience.