Why Responsive Web Design?

There’s one thing we are all going to be hearing a great deal more about in 2014. Don’t panic, it’s not Kate Middleton’s latest choice of outfits, although undoubtedly these will also feature largely. No, 2014, I think, will be the year we hear more and more about responsive web design.

Over the past year, it has been shown by numerous pieces of research that more and more people are turning to devices other than the traditional desktop to access the Internet. For instance, between the Octobers of 2012 and 2013, approximately 24% of website visits were from mobiles, and 13% from tablets. This is not surprising, given the sophisticated designs of many mobiles, not to mention the popularity of tablets such as iPads.

Now, what happens when you access a website from, let’s say, a mobile, can be one of two scenarios. Either, you will be instantly transported to the site, and you will continue on your merry way, happily buying your Christmas presents, booking your holiday or whatever else takes your fancy. The alternative is not quite so convenient. Unfortunately, on many occasions the website that is so swift on your desktop will be slow to load and difficult to use properly on your mobile or iPad. You may find yourself having to zoom in, scroll endlessly to find what you are looking for, or any other number of irritating things.

Let us pause and consider these two scenarios from a business point of view. Firstly, as the average person will devote a brutal three seconds only to allowing a website to load before moving on, clearly those websites that work straight away are the ones that are going to capture the customer’s attention. In turn, these customers will keep returning to these sites. On the other hand, the sites that are slow to load or hard to use on mobile devices will receive less and less traffic and, ultimately, will see a decrease in their profits. Thus, ensuring your website is easy to use from any device ensures that you keep your existing customers happy. It also allows you to attract new customers.

There is another benefit of incorporating a responsive design for your website. Doing so will enable you to analyse the performance of your website in a coherent manner using data from all types of devices. A simplified monitoring and analysing system which shows how customers behave on every device will be extremely useful if you wish to improve or even just to maintain your existing SEO strategy.

In 2014, it will be important to turn your attention to ensuring that your website is not only attractive, useful, and engaging for your customers on their desktops and laptops but also on the many many mobile devices out there.

Responsive web design may not be necessary or important for every single website but for those that it is you need to ensure you have a responsive web design in place so that customers can quickly access your website from any device, this will ensure that you retain and attract more custom and it also simplifies your SEO strategy. So, why not make responsive web design your New Year’s resolution?

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