With the stratospheric growth in the usage of mobile devices and the growth in the popularity of mobile phones; you would be doing yourself a tremendous disservice if your website isn't designed to respond and adapt to mobiles and other devices.
One fast method of doing this is to use a responsive site design. It's quick and effortless. But, what is a responsive site? What does it look and/or feel like?
Remember, mobile-friendly websites and responsive websites are two different things.
Basically, a mobile-friendly site will look great on mobile devices. But may have glitches and be more difficult to navigate when seen on devices with a higher resolution.
While a responsive website is a website design which allows your site to adapt to the size of any display it is being viewed on.
So it may be looked at on say, a desktop computer, laptop, or a tablet computer etc and end-consumers wouldn't ‘notice any difference’ on your website's general look on their screen.
In this guide, we'd be studying several advantages of working with a responsive website.
1. Increased Traffic From Mobile Users
Once upon a time companies used to make two versions of a single site. One for desktop users, and one only for mobile users.
Many still do so now. However, with ever-increasing viewership from mobile users, having two distinct versions of one site is a time intensive and higher maintenance practice.
Nowadays, you can have only one responsive site that's prepared for all devices.
This helps to ensure that individuals you retain your mobile audiences. And they may also make sure you visit your website another time every time they are in search of services you offer.
2. Reduced Costs And Site Maintenance
Another advantage of using a responsive site is: it offers you a lower maintenance cost compared to running two versions of one site.
But, it's relatively expensive initially. However, the reduced cost of maintaining two distinct sites does add up.
Moreover, it requires less time to setup. And it's much easier to keep one responsive site than keeping two versions of the identical website.
It frees up more time that you dedicate to other vital areas of your company. And you might also offer tailored location-based offers to drive traffic to your site.
Need a place to begin, you can access site design provides which are visually appealing and prepared for all devices.
3. Provides a Seamless User Experience
This is undoubtedly one of the most important advantages of having a responsive site. Unresponsive websites usually distort the way that your site appears on devices like cellular, and tablet.
Whereas desktop audiences may not have any problem viewing your site, but the same can't be said for mobile users.
Texts are jumbled, pictures don't align and users have to scroll through endless pages in search of the info that they need. This makes it a pain for users to use your website smoothly and seamlessly.
So after this kind of experience such as this, do you believe such a user would return to your site? I didn't think so also.
To prevent scenarios such as this, it would be worth it to evaluate the level of your site design. The benefits that will accrue to you in the very long term, will outweigh whatever you are going to spend on it initially.
4. Adapts Easily To Any Display Size
Another advantage of having a amazing responsive site ready for all apparatus is its adaptability to any display size.
Using a layout like this, you are way ahead of your competitors. And it positions your site to cater to newer apparatus with which users use to browse the net e.g. smartwatches, IoT apparatus, etc.. Your site can automatically adjust itself to match each display. And lastly ...
5. A Responsive Website Enhances Your SEO Efforts
Responsive websites have a better likelihood of rank high in SERPs (search engine results pages).
The ‘user focused’ experience, and high quality content could raise your dwell time. Thereby making users stick around for the future.
Google recommends a responsive site design pattern. In any case, it makes for a fantastic user experience and enhances your search engine optimization efforts across all platforms.
In conclusion, using a responsive site can save you a great deal of money, maintenance time and enable you to convert and retain more customers in the long term.