Responsive web design is a web page that “responds to” or resizes itself, depending on the type of device it is being viewed on. It makes your web page look good and easier to use on all devices such as a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
The ultimate goal of responsive design is to avoid unnecessary resizing, scrolling, zooming, or panning that occurs with sites that have not been optimized for different devices.
Today, the mobile is the “first screen” we look at when searching for products or services.
The amount of mobile traffic now accounts for more than half of total internet traffic. In 2018, Google announced that they were migrating sites that followed best practice in mobile-first indexing.
Mobile-first indexing means that Google now primarily crawl, index and rank the mobile version of the website.
So now, it’s more important than ever that you not only have a responsive web design, but also a customised mobile design of your website too.
It is Recommended By Google
With a 88.47% search market share as of April 2019, when Google speaks, search marketers listen.
Google states that responsive web design is its recommended mobile configuration. It even goes so far as to refer to responsive web design as the industry best practice.
This is because responsive design sites have one URL and the same HTML, regardless of device. This makes it easier and more efficient for Google to crawl, index, and organize content.
Google also prefers responsive web design because content that lives on one website and one URL is much easier for users to share, interact with, and link to than content that lives on a separate mobile site.
When it comes to search engine rankings, a responsive site is not optional anymore. Google is literally crushing sites that don’t offer a mobile-friendly experience.
Excellent User Experience
A responsive website leads to a better user experience. If a user finds it hard to navigate or use your site, because they’re forced to constantly pinch and zoom, they won’t stay on your website.
But if your website scales and responds to the change in screen size, then visitors won’t have problems accessing menus, links, buttons or filling out forms.
Faster loading webpages
Mobile users in particular have short attention spans.
According to research, 53% of mobile visitors abandon webpages that take longer than three seconds to load.
If a website isn’t optimized for smartphones and tablets, it will take more time to navigate, which can frustrate customers to a point of no return.
