Mobile devices dominate Internet use these days. In 2014, mobile traffic actually surpassed desktop browsing for the first time, and it appears to be a sign of things to come. Consequently, anyone who benefits from a web presence needs to move towards responsive design if they haven’t already.
A responsive, or adaptive, website is one that auto-adjusts so that it can be accessed properly on different devices. Pages, text, and layout are resized to fit the viewer’s screen. Responsive websites also eliminate media that is not mobile-friendly, such as Flash, as well as any interstitials that block page views.
Converting an existing website will require investment in terms of time and money, but the potential rewards listed below will justify the effort.
Reach more customers and increase profits
More people are using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to go online, and responsive websites make it easy for them to surf and shop on the go. When a company or entrepreneur doesn’t require potential customers to be sitting in front of a desktop computer in order to make purchases, they extend their reach significantly.
Mobile users also rely on their devices to source local businesses. In May 2014 Google conducted a study to better understand how consumers use its local search features, and drew the following conclusions:
- 59% of mobile users search for trustworthy local businesses on Google
- Half of all mobile searches are for local results
- 50% of mobile users visit a store within 24 hours of conducting a local search
- 61% buy something after a successful local search
Responsive websites ensure that companies don’t lose out on potential sales because their site designs are mobile-unfriendly.
Improved SEO success
Google is not only the world’s most popular search engine: it also owns 83% of the mobile market share. Back in 2012 representatives confirmed that Google algorithms favour responsively designed websites, and on April 21 of this year, mobile friendliness became a ranking criteria for websites. Any pages that do not display well on mobile devices will be penalised in terms of reduced search engine rankings.
If anyone is unsure whether their website meets Google’s criteria for mobile-friendliness, the search engine has a free testing tool that will analyse the entire site, assess its mobile-friendliness, and offer suggestions on how to improve the responsiveness of the design.
Another Google study confirmed that 72% of web users expect sites to display correctly on mobile platforms, and 61% will simply leave if the site doesn’t have a responsive design.
When those statistics are combined with the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index, which predicts that mobile data traffic will account for 97% of Internet use by 2019, it becomes even more important that site owners believe in magic where responsive design is concerned.
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