Responsive Web Design - It's Now or Never!

Earlier this year Google officially announced that mobile searches had overtaken desktop searches and as a result would be updating their search engine algorithms. As of 21 April, Google began rewarding mobile-friendly sites with higher rankings whilst ignoring those that hadn’t made changes to improve the mobile user experience. If you are a business looking to be competitive online, it’s time to understand the importance of responsive web design.

Putting Responsive Web Design into Perspective

With so many technical terms floating around, it may be a bit confusing trying to understand just what responsive web design is all about. The easiest way to put it into perspective is to think about how difficult it can be for a mobile phone user to get the most from a website they are trying to access.

If a website is not responsive, the mobile user will not be able to easily navigate the web pages. This will generally be much more time consuming for the user and cause them to leave the website promptly.

 

Responsive web design simply means that a website is built in such a way as to determine the size screen the viewer is using and adjust the page accordingly. No tapping and/or zooming is necessary. A responsive web page will ‘filter out’ unnecessary features and content so that the mobile user can quickly spot what they are looking for before clicking through or exiting the page.

What Responsive Web Design Means to Your Business

What this means to your business is huge. Since more people are conducting mobile searches rather than from their desktop PCs, you will want your site to be visible in mobile SERPs (Search engine results pages). If your website is not responsive and cannot be viewed properly on a mobile phone, you could see a negative impact on your Google rankings. It’s really as simple as that!

In June of this year, Google’s UK-Ireland VP for Sales and Operations, Eileen Naughton stated that more than 50% of all searches in the United Kingdom were conducted via mobile phones. This number is increasing by the day and as of next year it is predicted that as many as 60 to 70% of all searches will be via mobile phones. With statistics like these, it’s easy to see why responsive web design is now or never.

Don’t Let the Competition Leave You Behind

Whether you are currently building a website for your business or have one up and running, the importance of responsive web design should be perfectly clear. Web crawlers may not index (rank) your site if the pages are not mobile friendly. If the competition has gone mobile-friendly they will rank, get the traffic and then leave you behind.

You may still be in the running but if you haven’t gone responsive your time is limited!

To find out more about responsive web design and our services that will transform your website, please feel free to get in contact and talk to a member of our team today.