What is Responsive Website Design
A responsive web design refers to website layouts, designs, or versions which can display on all kinds of platforms and browsers. According to eMarketer, 75.7% of today's population are using mobile phones. Certainly, you can expect the majority of those users to rely on their cell phones as well for accessing the Internet. Not having a mobile ready website is virtually akin to turning away a huge chunk of your target market - and driving them to your competition as well.
Essential Keys to Responsive Web Design
In order to create a responsive design for your website, you need to focus on the following factors.
Designing for multiple platforms - It's no longer sufficient to design just for desktop and laptop users. You should also make sure that your website - and every essential aspect of it - will translate effectively regardless of the device and browser a person is using to access your website.
Flexible or automatically resized images - It's important that you make strategic use of images as they are one of the most difficult components to adjust and integrate with mobile layouts. When you do use an image, you should also make sure that it is programmed to resize and fit the needs or limits of a mobile layout.
Comprehensive labeling - Search engine robots can get more than a little confused when they crawl around your mobile website. Because your content may also be compressed to fit the parameters of your mobile layout, lack of labels can cause the content of your website to be all jumbled up. Your human readers may not be confused, but search engine robots do not always possess the same sense of intuition your human readers have. Overall, it's better to play it safe and protect your search engine ranking by meticulously labeling your text and making good use of subheadings whenever appropriate.
Regular monitor checks - Although responsive designs are becoming increasingly popular, they're still fairly new. As such, there are still lots of glitches to smooth out along the way. It would be better overall if you were to frequently check on the mobile version of your website just to see if everything is working the way it should.
Why Do I Need a Responsive Website Design Right Now?
"Now" is the operative word in this case. As the statistical evidence below will prove, it's imperative that you make the necessary changes to your website as soon as possible. If not, the gap between you and your competition will only continue to increase - and at an exponential rate at that.
A study conducted by MobiThinking this year showed that approximately 1.2B individuals in the world use mobile devices to go online. More importantly, 25% of that figure has been identified as "mobile-only" Internet users.
Do what's right and what's best for your business this moment and contact an expert in order to start enjoying the benefits of a responsive web design.