It may be that your business has not been ignoring responsive design. If so, kudos to all involved for staying with the times and presenting a professional image!
If not, here’s a quick catcher-upper to fill you in on what responsive design can mean for your website and business:
What is Responsive Design?
Responsive design is the term that is used when talking about creating a website that looks and works well on devices like smart phones, tablets and desktops.
A truly serviceable website looks great no matter what device a user has called it up on, and the use of smart phones is on the rise. Statistical reports show that about 5 billion people are expected to use these intelligent devices by the year 2017!
Smart companies have readied their online content for viewing on smartphones, while others are scrambling to catch up. Don’t get left behind!
Analytics are Useful
Businesses should know how often people are accessing their websites using tablets and smartphones. Why? This data tells a story; a business might be missing out on mobile device traffic because of ignoring the relevant keywords mobile browsers tend to use to find businesses like theirs.
Fortunately, there are companies like Google who have made a business out of analytics and creating user-friendly ways for a business to learn more about its web traffic. Of course, there are other companies that do a smashing job of web analytics as well, like Clicky, Church Analytics, Mint, and others.
All Mobile Users are Local
A smartphone user is likely to search for local restaurants when out and about with friends, not for the best place to eat in another city. Businesses who fail to clearly attach themselves to a physical address in the real world on their website do not automatically appear in important search results as they should.
If a Google search engine is looking for postal codes near a user’s location, for example, it is prudent to have a postal code prominently displayed and easily found on a commercial website. Think local; act responsively.
Easy, Easier, Easiest
Smart, responsive design means that a smartphone user will not have to zoom in on website content. Instead, it will appear clearly on small screens. This means that graphics that would take time for a mobile device to load should not be used on a mobile-friendly website.
If a website is difficult to navigate on a mobile device, the user will usually click away in seconds. As Susan Gunelius put in in Forbes, “We’ve …finally reached the point where companies are accepting the fact that the best ROI comes from fully-integrated marketing programs.”
A Mobile Site is not the Answer
If your web designer advises you to run a regular website and a mobile website, you should probably seek out a web designer who gets the idea of integrating marketing strategies. The goal is for the end user to have a seamless experience, to be able to continue a session that begun on a laptop on a smartphone. The consensus in the industry is that a website must be able to travel among all devices smoothly.
Responsive design is not just the latest tech talk or buzz word. It’s the way people look at websites these days, and something that all business owners need to get into if they haven’t already. Once that’s in place, your website will be ready to handle qualified leads and buyers so you can make more money without wasting your marketing efforts on visitors that leave immediately.
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