When it comes to online searching, in recent years a shift has been seen from traditional desktop computer searches to mobile phone searches. Today, over 75 percent of all online searches are made from mobile devices. In this article, we’ll share the importance of responsive web design.
It could be argued that this shift was caused by Google’s Mobilegeddon and AMP. Google introduced a new search engine algorithm in 2015, where Google made it clear that the desktop versions of websites are not easy to view and use on mobile phones. While this did not affect how searching on a desktop, priority was given to mobile-friendly websites.
This gave a boost to mobile-friendly websites in the search results. On the other hand, there was a decline in search engine rankings for websites that were not mobile-friendly. It is because of these reasons why responsive web designs have become a famous web development trend in today’s world.
How important is web accessibility?
Web development accessibility refers to developing or designing a website using tools and technologies that make the website easy to view and use for everyone, including people with disabilities. It is worth noting that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires certain businesses to make their web content accessible to deaf and blind users who should be able to navigate by screen readers, by voice or by other types of assistive tools.
Businesses that fall under ADA must have an ADA compliant website. If your business falls under the category of “public accommodation”; or your business has at least 15 full-time employees and operates for 20 or more weeks per year, you should do a little more research on web accessibility and learn what is an ADA compliant website.
Failure to comply with these ADA requirements could result in a website accessibility lawsuit and cause damage to the image of your brand or business.
The Importance of Responsive Web Design
A responsive website is one that resizes itself and responds according to the device being used to view it. The main goal of a responsive web design is to remove the trouble of manually resizing and confusion for website users, whether they are viewing the website content on their smartphone, laptop, tablet or a desktop monitor.
There are many different benefits of having a responsive web design. From improving user experience to improving your SEO and conversion rates, there are many different ways in which a responsive web design can contribute to your growth and website ranking. We will now move on to look at some of the most common benefits of having a responsive web design.
Increased Traffic and Better SEO
Traffic statistics indicate that more than 75 percent of web traffic comes from mobile phones. This only makes it clearer how important it has become to have a website that is mobile-friendly. Your website will experience an increase in the number of visitors once you implement a responsive design. Moreover, by making it easy to view and use the web pages. There should also be an increase in the time these visitors will be spending on the website.
Improved search engine rankings is another benefit of having a responsive web design. Google takes into account the responsiveness of all websites as one of the key factors in determining their rank in the search engine results. What this means is that if your website does not have a responsive web design, it will be lower in the search engine results automatically because of how Google ranks websites.
Improved User Experience and Faster Website Loading Times
No matter what device your visitors are using, a responsive website design will make for a positive experience. Think about it, when the visitors of your website. Learn that your website responds and resizes to changes in scales effectively. They can view and access all the options in the menu easily. They will want to spend more time on it. On the other hand, if they find it difficult to do all this. Instead have to pinch and zoom to view the website’s content. They wouldn’t want to spend much time on it.
Many visitors tend to leave websites that take more than 3-4 seconds to finish loading content. Fortunately, with a responsive web design, websites load faster regardless of the device in use to access the content. A responsive web design incorporates fluid grids and responsive images to facilitate faster loading times. Which in turn directly and positively influences the duration and the experience of your website visitors.
Better Conversion Rates: The Importance of Responsive Web Design
With a responsive web design and responsive social media share buttons. It makes it easy for visitors to share embedded links on their mobile phones. Sharing the website and the content on more social media platforms could mean exposure to new audiences. Which will result in a higher conversion rate and increased website traffic.
According to research, mobile phone conversion rates are about 50% higher than desktop conversion rates. Now that is evident what is ADA. What other points should be into consideration while designing your corporate website? You will be able to optimize it for all people and all devices. A responsive website that offers a good user experience will help create a professional impression. In conclusion, build trust which should ultimately lead to more conversions.
