What is responsive website design?

Back in the day when everyone had a phone that could only make calls, most of us used our desktop to view websites. Now that phones, tablets and watches can access almost every website people are spending two to three hours per day viewing websites via their smaller devices. Because of this change in the way websites are viewed it is no longer enough to have a website suited to desktops, now all websites need to accommodate for browsers of all shapes and sizes.

So what is responsive website design and how does it benefit you? A responsive website is one that automatically adjusts its format based on different screen sizes. With a responsive we3bsite you can view it through almost any device that has access to the internet and browser.

How responsive website design works

Most websites are made up with files, examples of these include a home page, about us page, contact us page and so on. Each page contains code and content, this meaning text, images, links to documents and so on. Websites re all styled with style sheets so that you get to see the website colours, page formatting and layout. A non-responsive website will use older stylesheets that display the website in the same format for all devices though a responsive website will have a new style sheet with an alternate set of styles that are used depending on the type of devices being used. So if you view the website through a desktop it pulls up one style sheet, if you view it through phone it will use the styles of that style sheet that relate to smaller screens.

Why is it so important?

Most recently statistics have shown that more than 65% of people view websites through their mobile devices so viewing a website through a phone that is not responsive is difficult. Text formatting will be small, images small, basically the whole website will fit within the screen and you would need to zoom into a page every time you load a new one. With responsive design the website re-formats based on the device being used making it much easier to navigate through the website, easier to read text and view images and video. Today most mobile device users expect a website to be responsive so if your website is outdated and not responsive, you will be loosing lots of traffic.

The most recent studies carried out by Google now confirms that any business, small to large must have a responsive website if they want to survive on the internet. Have a look at the following.

• More than 60% of users say they won’t recommend a business that has a poorly designed website
• Just over 65% of ALL online traffic now comes from mobile phones and tablets
• 70% mobile phone users also say that they are more likely to buy from a website that has a responsive website that works on all devices.
• Consumers have two times more interactions with websites on a mobile phone compared with any other device, this includes desktops, laptops, tablets and TV’s.
• Three out of four mobile phone users will turn to their mobile device to search for their immediate needs before referring to a desktop device.

Responsive design and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Late 2016 Google also introduced new measures to ensure that all websites followed the trend of responsive design by penalising websites that did not comply with responsive website design guidelines. With the loss of traffic due not to having a responsive site and also being penalised by Google, this can create a large gap in the amount of visitors that view your website compared to having a responsive website.

Summarising “What is responsive website design?”

Responsive design is a way of displaying a website in a reasonable format which can be viewed on all devices. If you don’t have a responsive website it will be costing your business sales. You can learn more by visiting the Wikipedia article on Responsive Web Design.

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