What is “responsive web design” & why do I need it?
How can a website look great on millions of different screen sizes? A responsive web design ensures a website will look great and function perfectly no matter what internet device you use.
What is responsive web design?
Responsive web design describes a web design technique that allows a website to render (display) on different devices and screens by adapting its content to fit and function properly no matter if it is a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Today, you can connect to the internet from almost any device. Think about all the different screen sizes and resolutions. Some people use 27″ 4k monitors while others use small tablets and iPhones. A responsive website will resize its content, text and images to fit into (almost) any size screen. This is critical to a website’s success because data shows that over 60% of global web traffic is from mobile devices.
Your website should look great, and work perfectly across all platforms and devices. The solution is a responsive web design.
Responsive Images
Responsive web design is all in the planning. A well designed Responsive website will create and store multiple versions of the same image, a small and large version. The small version is used on small displays and the large image will be used on larger displays. This ensures the image will look great, and only use the necessary amount of data. Larger images use more data, which means more transfer time. A noticeable delay (especially on slower mobile connections causing users to leave the site.
A second option for images is using scalable vector graphics. Scalable vector graphics (.SVG files) look great no matter how big or small. SVG files can also help with loading times as their file size is a fraction of JPGs or PNG images. Be careful, as some SVG files can contain malware and harm your website. We recommend using safe SVG files from known sources or try an SVG cleaner.
Responsive User Interface
Optimizing your website’s user interface and user experience for mobile users should be a top priority. Hard to read small text, and hidden menus can frustrate users. In a recent study, over 80% of users said they would never return to a website after a bad user experience. Concentrating on ease of use and mobile-friendly buttons can improve your bottom line.
SEO & Responsive Web Design
Because 60% of traffic is coming from mobile devices, a responsive website design is critical in search engine optimization. Having overlapping text or huge images will cause users to leave your site and less traffic means fewer leads.
When it comes to search engine optimization, Google prioritizes mobile page load speed as a key metric when determining your website’s search ranking. This is important because 94% of organic search traffic comes from Google. It is stated in Google search console “Google recommends Responsive Web Design.”
How can you tell if your website is mobile-friendly or not?
Seeing how important a responsive website design is, Google has created a webpage that can test your website. It’s easy to tell if your website is mobile-friendly is to enter your website’s URL and Google will give you a score and recommendations. Fortunately, it’s easy to test your website, but unfortunately, it is not always easy to fix the issues.
How can I make my website mobile friendly?
Call the professionals at Font Text! We excel at listening and then acting on your needs, to deliver a successful marketing campaign through online advertising, web design & development, and SEO. Our team of Columbus experts is equipped with the knowledge, experience, and passion needed to get the job done and is poised and ready to deliver a wide range of website design and development services. Let us help you achieve your business goals through market research, thoughtful design and exceptional service.
