Why does it matter?
Responsive web design is better and everyone else is doing it. Keep your business up to date and have an edge over your competition!
The future is mobile
While going responsive can present challenges for business website owners and marketers, without a mobile-friendly website your future online is not so bright. If you’re not providing a mobile-friendly experience for your customers, they’ll easily leave your website and go to your competitor whose website is easier to use. The future is mobile, as most people increasingly favour their mobile devices over desktop computers. Making your website responsive is just a small price to pay to reach all these people and potential clients.
Here are some undeniable reasons your website needs to be responsive
1) Mobile internet usage has been skyrocketing
This might be obvious for most of you, yet despite the growing statistics, many businesses do not yet have a mobile business website.
Convincing statistics:
Over 20% of Google searches are performed on a mobile device.
In 2012, more than half of local searches were performed on a mobile device.
61% of people have a better opinion of brands when they offer a good mobile experience.
2) Positive user-friendly experience is necessary
If a user lands on your mobile business website and is frustrated and has trouble finding what they are looking for, there’s a 61% chance they will leave immediately and go to another website (probably a competitor). If they have a positive user-friendly experience with your mobile business website, they are 67% more likely to buy a product or service.
3) Blogging and social media engagement bring mobile traffic
If you have some sort of blogging and social media posting and links incorporated in your marketing strategy, you probably have seen more mobile traffic on your website. If you are sharing content links or direct links to your website and don’t have a mobile-friendly business website, you’re not only going to experience high bounce rates and low conversion rates, but also a frustrated audience.
4) Responsive design is better for SEO
Google prefers responsive web design over mobile templates. Having one single URL makes it easier for Google bot to locate your site as well as reduces the chance of website SEO errors. For these reasons, responsive websites generally perform better and are easier to maintain than a separate, mobile-template site.
5) A speedy responsive website is key to gaining clients
The content above the fold on a mobile device loads in under 1 second and the rest of the page loads in under 2 seconds. This is usually not possible when loading a desktop website on a mobile device. When a user has to wait too long for a page to load, the chances that they will leave your business website are extremely likely.
6) Responsive adapts to future devices
One of the many greatest benefits of responsive web design is that the size of the template is designed based on screen size, not the device type. This being said, no matter what size screen someone is viewing your website on, it will display properly for that screen size.
So, looking towards the future, as new devices are invented and being used for web browsing, your responsive mobile business website will still shine brightly on all interfaces.
Moving forward, it will be extremely critical that your website provides mobile users an easy-to-use and user-friendly experience. Having a mobile website is no longer a “nice to have” feature, rather, it is now a necessity and immensely impacts the growth of your business.