Responsive web design is critical for a modern website

With the continuing advances in technology, people can view websites on a multitude of different web browsers - PCs, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. In fact, tablets and mobiles are now the most common devices used to access the internet, explore, browse and shop.

When a website does not load properly onto these devices or looks odd or is difficult to navigate – this can be a huge cause of frustration for many consumers who will quickly lose interest and move on.

Fixing your website to correct these problems can be overwhelming for business owners and professionals who know what they want yet don’t understand ‘responsive web design’. This is where we can help, we are experts in ensuring our clients’ websites flex and change appropriately, according to the device being used.

A website we’ve designed with responsive web design adapts the layout to the viewing environment using the following ways:

• The fluid grid concept resizes page elements using percentages rather than pixels.
• Flexible images are sized using relative units so that the pictures are not displayed outside of their elements.
• Your website will display correctly on whichever screen size is being used.

There are also many benefits to using responsive web design:

• You can gain more mobile traffic to your website. Most comes from mobile viewing today and you may be missing out on a large market of potential buyers. It is extremely important for businesses to have a website which loads properly without images or text being distorted.
• You can get faster mobile development whilst paying less. Some people opt to have a separate website for mobile viewing. More are now however, choosing to use responsive web design because it gives a website the ability to automatically adapt for all screen sizes at a lower cost.
• Lower maintenance needs. Responsive web design has a 'one size fits all approach' meaning there are much lower maintenance needs than separate websites.
• Web pages will load faster. Mobile users have short attention spans and research has shown if a website takes longer than three seconds to finish loading, then the users will abandon them.
• Websites not optimised for mobile phones or tablets, take longer to navigate which can also add to the frustration of your would-be customers. Modern performance techniques such as caching and responsive image display will help to improve the loading time of your website.
• You will have lower bounce rates as people are more likely to stay on your website if they can read it properly
• These will inevitably lead to higher conversion rates over time.
• You can have improved SEO. Responsive web design is fast becoming as important to search engine optimisation as a website with quality content. If your website has strong backlinks, lower bounce rates and is mobile optimised then it will have a stronger SEO benefit.

Responsive web design also instils confidence in your customers by showing them that your business is current and forward thinking. 

A responsive website from Midwinter Web Design will ensure no matter how your audience view your website, it will always display correctly and look appealing.

And remember, currently Google are reviewing all the websites listed on Google Search and giving higher ranking positions to responsive websites.

If you would like to find out how our responsive website design and development service could help your business then please contact us.