Responsive design is the hot topic for any device with access to the internet and a mobile browser.
We’ve moved beyond mobile and finally reached the point where companies are accepting the fact that the best ROI comes from fully integrated marketing programs. It’s hard to fully integrate when your website is a convoluted mess of versions for different devices or worse, a single version that renders poorly on different devices.
The case for responsive design has been made clear, and responsive web design is the hottest topic for not only business websites, but especially ecommerce websites. However, companies are still slow to invest the time and money into the development required to turn their antiquated websites into responsive websites that render perfectly no matter what device a person is using.
Now is the time to prioritize responsive design in your budget. With a responsive website, businesses can be in front of consumers at every step of their online journey. People who search for a business’ site, begin reading content and viewing videos from their desktop computers at work, and then look for the same business on their smartphones during lunch are able to continue their research into products and services uninterrupted.
In contrast, if the business has a traditional website and a mobile site, someone investigating products and services online can become frustrated by the lack of complete content on the mobile site or the inability to navigate through the full site on her smartphone. They might, and often do, give up the search altogether which results in lost conversions and revenue for a business.
Responsive websites provide continuity between different viewing contexts, remaining completely agnostic to the type of device used and the size of the screen it has. What this means is that the same website will present an optimized layout regardless of which device it finds itself being loaded in.
A Mobile Version of Your Website Isn’t Good Enough.
It’s important to understand that having a mobile version of your website isn’t enough anymore. Responsive websites simplify internet marketing and SEO. Instead of having to develop and manage content for multiple websites, businesses with responsive sites can take a unified approach to content management because they have only the one responsive site to manage. The same applies to analytics and strategy development and deployment. A responsive website means there is only one set of analytics to examine and a single strategy to develop and deploy.
In addition, responsive websites are easier for consumers to find than traditional or mobile sites because they come up higher in search engines’ rankings. In fact, Google recommends responsive web design because having a single URL for desktop and mobile sites makes it easier for Google to discover content and for Google’s algorithms to assign indexing properties to content.
Responsive Design in the Future
There are a lot of exciting things coming up with responsive design. We’re already using responsive design in web applications, and developers are exploring emerging areas of responsive design by testing a multitude of integrations that are now available.
One thing is certain, you don’t want to fall behind and watch your competitors launch responsive websites while yours is still stuck in 2010 (or earlier). The time to get responsive with your web design is now. If you need help with your responsive web design partner with The Creative Ninja. Simply contact him today to get your free quote.
