Responsive web design has become incredibly popular in the past few years. This approach uses fluid page elements and flexible images to create a user experience that is consistently high-quality across various screen sizes. With the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets, a mobile ready website is a must. Brands that establish great responsive websites enjoy numerous benefits. By investing into their mobile user experience, businesses can increase sales while also reducing maintenance costs.
Better User Experience
Modern consumers aren't just browsing the internet on their computers anymore. They are using a variety of devices ranging from phones to televisions. This means that websites need to be designed to provide content in an easily consumable format regardless of screen size. Responsive design is one of the best ways to accomplish this because it automatically resizes and reformats content to comfortably fit any screen.
Interacting with non-responsive websites can be extremely frustrating for users. Many websites that are not properly designed for smaller screens require the user to pan and zoom in order to reach the content they want. In many cases, users simply will simply close the page rather than struggling with a frustrating design.
Easier Maintenance
The most common mobile-friendly alternative to responsive web design is to create multiple versions of the same website to fit different screen sizes. Updating content and management search engine optimization (SEO) on such as setup is time consuming. Furthermore, maintaining two or more versions of the same website is bound to result in inconsistencies. Opting for a responsive web design makes maintenance significantly easier because there is only one website and one SEO campaign to manage.
In fact, Google recommends responsive web design as an industry best practice. With only one website to crawl and index, responsive web design makes it easier for search engines like Google to deliver the right results to their users.
Improved Sales Conversions
Smooth, easy to consume content is significantly more likely to convert new customers. Billions of people around the world are accessing the internet through mobile devices. If they are unable to access and view web pages easily, they will be less likely to make a purchase, fill out a form, or contact the business.
A responsive website can also benefit other internet marketing techniques such as promotional email campaigns. Research shows that around a quarter of all emails are opened on phones and about a tenth on tablets. In other words, many of the campaign's recipients will open the emails on their mobile devices. If the linked pages are not responsive, some recipients may find the have difficulty navigating on their chosen devices. The resulting frustration will make them less likely to convert if they even stay on the website at all.
Similarly, users can share responsive content more easily. For example, if one user on a laptop shares an article which his or her friend opens on a tablet, it will display well with the same URL.
Responsive web design is a valuable investment for almost any business. By offering a consistent user experience that is easy to share and consume on any device, responsive websites help to notably improve sales numbers. Additionally, with only one website to manage, responsive design makes maintenance easier and cheaper.
Contact Quantum today to learn more about how responsive web design can seriously improve your online marketing ROI.
