4 Reasons Your Business Needs a Responsive Web Design
In today’s world, patience is far less a virtue than it is an inconvenience. In a day and age where we’re so accustomed to gaining access to essentially any information we want in a matter of seconds, a poorly designed website can be the difference between a sales conversion and a negative online review.
Professional web design is imperative to any company’s online presence, but it goes beyond merely improving loading speeds. Your website needs to perform and feel the same on mobile devices as it does on desktop computers or laptops, which is why responsive web design is essential for catering to your mobile customers.
Research shows that over 73% of web designers believe that non-responsive web design is a primary motive on why visitors leave a website, and that reducing mobile site load times by just one-tenth of a second can boost conversion rates over 8% for retail sites and over 10% for travel sites. Testing the patience of your mobile users will only result in increases of poor user experience.
Today’s web has changed drastically compared to just a couple of years ago. The rapid growth of mobile internet usage has changed the way web design needs to be implemented. In the past, mobile browsing was usually handled by the use of a mobile site. But mobile sites not only give you a condensed version of your site, but it takes twice the work to maintain two websites instead of one.
So how do you offer your visitors the full experience of your website while only maintaining one website at no additional cost? Let’s take a look at what responsive web design really is and review four reasons your business will benefit from it.
What Is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive web design is the ability for a web page to automatically scale proportionally to any device screen size without losing any content, images or site structure. This allows you to need and maintain only one website without the need for a mobile site.
Responsive design is done by using a fluid grid layout versus a pixel based layout. This allows your site to detect the screen size it is being viewed upon and automatically fit the correct width with the rules you set in your css.
Now that you know what responsive design is, here are four reasons you need to switch to it today.
Reason1 |Your Customers Are Going Mobile
In the past few years, mobile traffic has quickly become the most utilized form of internet usage, with 62.06% of all website traffic stemming from people using mobile devices. This impacts small businesses just as much as larger ones, as 76% of consumers who conduct a “near me” search for services or products in their area do so on a mobile device.
That means the majority of your target customer base is searching for your products or services from somewhere other than their computer. So if you’re not implementing responsive web design into your current web design practices, just think of all the money you’re leaving on the table!
Reason2 |It Increases Conversion Rates
If you’re still neglecting the design and performance of your mobile site, your chances of making a sale, regardless of who comes across your website, will significantly decrease. The widespread usage of mobile has made consumers demand more from their browsing experience.
Let’s be honest; people's patience isn’t exactly what it used to be. So if your target audience visits a website that isn’t optimized to fit the screen they’re browsing on, they aren’t going to work harder just to use your site; they’re going to find a competitor's website that works just fine.
By switching to a responsive web design, you not only allow users to view your site the way it is meant to be viewed on any device, but you can also rearrange content to better convert those visitors. You can give more precise placement to features like a clickable phone number, or buttons that allow people to get a quote, fill out contact forms, or get driving directions to your location. Each device may require slightly different conversion techniques, but responsive design allows you to take advantage of such features and increase your lead conversion rates.
Reason 3 | It’s Better for SEO
In recent years, Google has started to prioritize mobile website performance when it comes to ranking websites on relevant search engine results. This means that a non-responsive web design will negatively impact your SEO rankings, or how high your website ranks when your target audience searches for the products and services your company has to offer.
The more Google penalizes your website for not being mobile-friendly, the less likely your website will be to wind up on the first page of search results. And you know what happens when your website doesn’t wind up on the first page of local, relevant Google results? A drastic dropoff in clicks, as research shows that only .63% of Google users clicked on links from past the second page.
Reason 4 |You’ll Keep an Edge On Your Competition
Perhaps the most overlooked reason your business needs responsive web design? Because if your mobile website isn’t performing well, you can rest assured that most, if not all, of your competitors’ websites are as mobile-friendly as possible.
Slow loading speeds, poor navigation, confusing content structure, faulty audio or video use; all of these elements of non-responsive web design give customers the impression that if you don’t care about your mobile website and online presence, then maybe they also don’t care about their own company performance and customer service. Utilizing responsive web design gains trust and credibility with website visitors, while giving you another competitive edge against your local competition.
Trust Triton Commerce for Superior Web Design Services
No matter what industry your company operates within, enhancing your online presence with superior web design is vital for reaching your target audience online. At Triton Commerce, we take pride in helping our clients upgrade their website performance and user experience by offering comprehensive responsive web design services.
Ready to take your website to the next level? Contact Triton Commerce today to schedule a consultation with our team of web design specialists!