Wednesday, May 18, 2016

The Importance of Making Your Website Responsive

By Karen Preston-Loeb

We previously wrote about Furia Rubel’s approach to responsive website design. Today, it has become even more important to provide your website visitors with tailored mobile, tablet and desktop configurations. Google now gives preference to mobile-friendly pages by boosting their ranking in mobile search results. While this affects individual pages instead of entire websites, adjusting your organization’s website to be responsive makes good business sense.

What is Responsive Website Design?

A “responsive” website is one in which the page layout acclimates proportionally as you shrink or expand a screen. When a user views the website on a desktop computer, the screen size is generally larger. When a visitor uses a tablet or smartphone, the screen size will scale and shrink appropriately to fit the display of that device. On a non-responsive website, information may be lost as the visual area gets smaller. Responsive websites adapt to allow users to see all pertinent material and to navigate easily to the information they want to view.

Having a responsive website is helpful for a few reasons. It provides the user – who might be a potential client, a current customer or a referral source – with navigation to obtain information on your organization quickly and easily. A frustrated user could lead to a loss of business.

Mobile Has Surpassed Desktop 

Ensuring that mobile website visitors have a positive experience is more important than ever. In recent years, the number of web visits coming from mobile devices has increased steadily. In May 2015, Google confirmed what most digital observers already suspected, that more people now browse the internet on mobile devices than on desktop computers.

The search engine responded to that behavior by giving preference to mobile-friendly web pages in the algorithms that determine which websites appear highest in search results. To see how Google Search views your website pages, run your website URL through Google’s mobile-friendly test.

Today, websites that adapt to deliver visitors a positive experience on every size screen are a necessary part of doing business. Don’t let Google penalize your company for not being mobile-friendly. Consider updating your website to responsive design.

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