A Responsive Website is a Must

The title of this article says it all really, take it from us, you really must have a responsive website! We’ve worked on many websites of varying sizes and we’ve worked with clients who come to us with varying website requirements. For 2 or 3 years now, one of the main requests that we get from clients is to convert their existing website into a responsive, mobile-friendly website.

Whilst this might be old news for many people, it is still one of the best investments you can make when looking to improve your online exposure. So, if you haven’t already, please give it some serious thought. Some of the key reasons why you should ensure that your website is responsive are outlined below.

What Does Responsive Design Mean?

Responsive web design allows a website to change size to match the screen you are viewing it on. So, when you open a website on a phone it will optimise the website for your current view. Responsive websites also take into account things such as touch screen, so it is much easier for the user to navigate around a site.

With the varied range of handheld devices such as iPads, tablets and mobile phones, responsive websites are becoming much more important. Having a mobile-friendly website is becoming more essential if you are wanting to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). In 2014, mobile sales rose above desktop sales, so it is expected that mobile internet usage is going to increase above that of desktop internet usage.

What the Benefits Are

Over 50% of all time spent browsing the internet is done using a mobile device, over 80% of all people searching the internet own a mobile browser. Such statistics have grown in favour of mobile browsing for the last few years and are projected to grow over the coming years as mobile technology advances and trends become more mobile orientated. The benefits of having a responsive website design are:

• It shows that you are a modern company who care about their users, client perception is something you should always be looking to stimulate
• Improve user experience
• Improves exposure and engages your users effectively. Whilst also helping towards improving your search engine rankings
• Cost effective – in the early days of mobile web conversions it was a case of creating multiple websites. One for mobile, one for desktop, one as an application… and this proved very costly to
• implement and maintain. With a mobile-friendly website, you need only update and maintain the one system!
• Reach a HUGE audience of property finders, an audience that is growing daily
• Prepare for the future in mobile technology
• Shopping on mobile devices is growing
• Improve Social media integration and integrate directly with Apps on mobile devices

Making Your Website Responsive

The advantage of having a responsive website is that you only need to have one website and it will be optimised on all devices. If your website isn’t responsive then you will likely be paying to host and manage 2 or more websites, which in the long run, will cost you much more moving forward.

Having more than one site to fit different sizes also causes you to have duplicate content which isn’t good for SEO, and could result with your competition leaving you behind. However, if you have a responsive website, your domain name will be the same for all devices, and your SEO rankings will not be compromised. A recent Google update has put a huge emphasis on the use of mobile-friendly websites, favouring them above others.

Can you afford to ignore these statistics? Fortunately for you, this doesn’t have to break the bank as all of our website developments come with a responsive design as standard.

If you would like to speak to us about how we can improve your online presence, then please contact us to find out more.