One of the main buzzwords to hit the online community recently is responsive site design. Here are just a few reasons why it is crucial to ensure that this has been implemented on your website.
1. Recommended by Google
With more than half of smartphone users now accessing the internet by means of these devices, it makes perfect sense to ensure that everyone can not only read your site, but also navigate through it quickly and easily. Google plans in favoring mobile friendly websites in 2015.
2. Provide Positive User Experience
There is nothing more frustrating for mobile device users than to arrive at your site and not be able to navigate it or not have the same level of functionality that visitors from desktop devices have. A responsive site design will ensure that visitors from mobile devices are willing to return as well creating a great user experience.
3. Combat High Bounce Rates
High bounce rates will have a negative effect on search rankings because Google will see your website as one that may have irrelevant content – even though the cause is mobile device users who cannot view or navigate your site properly.
4. Decreased Website Maintenance Costs
Many companies are still trying to maintain two different versions of their websites – a desktop version and a mobile version. Using responsive site design means that they will only need to cover the cost of one site – which all users can access with ease.
5. Have a Competitive Edge
Not everyone has embraced responsive website design as yet, which means that business that have will have a distinct advantage over those who haven’t. By the time your competitors have implemented it, your business will already have the lion’s share of site visitors.
6. Boost SEO Rankings
Websites that cater for desktop users and those who use mobile devices will score higher search rankings because they are more user-friendly. An added advantage of responsive design is that you will not have to try and build online authority with a separate mobile website as well as your main site.
7. Adapt for Future Devices
The main benefit of responsive design is that it allows your website to display fully, regardless of the screen that it is being viewed on. This means that with more and more people surfing the net with mobile devices, your site will already be mobile-friendly.
8. Increased Sales
Ensuring that your site is accessible to desktop as well as mobile users will result in an increase in site visitors and ultimately, an increase in sales and profits.
9. Mobile Usage on the Rise
Up to 55% of website visits are from users who are accessing them by means of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. If current trends are anything to go by, this figure looks set to rise further within the next few years.
10. Consistent Branding
Having one website to deal with will ensure that your branding and overall image is able to remain consistent online.
If you have not yet implemented responsive site design into your online marketing strategy, now is certainly the time to get started. Once you have done so, you can look forward to an increase in site traffic and sales.
