More and more people are using their mobile devices, tablets and smartphones, for their daily search needs. What used to be possible only on a desktop is now being taken over by mobile devices. People are using their devices to browse social media, check email and make online purchases. The convenience of mobile searching is undeniable.
This increase in mobile internet usage is steadily growing day by day, making it extremely important that your website is responsive to the many sized screens and creating optimal user experience for your users.
What does responsive design mean?
Responsive design allows you to have one website instead of having multiple sites for various devices or worrying about whether your website runs properly on any of the many mobile devices. It is flexible because it is based on the size of the screen and not specific devices.
Mobile Usage is Increasing Daily
- Mobile devices make up more than 20 percent of Google searches
- In 2012 more than over half of all local searches were done using a mobile device.
- 25 percent of Internet users access the internet only using a mobile device in the United States.
- 25.85 percent of all emails were opened using mobile phones, additionally another 10.16 percent were opened using tablets.
- In 2014 mobile internet use is expected to outdo desktop use.
- There are 4 billion mobile phones worldwide,1.08 billion smartphones and 3.05 have SMS enabled.
Google Recommendations
Google prefers responsive web design because it is more efficient for Google to crawl the site, index, and organize all the content. Responsive design sites consist of one URL and use the same HTML across all platforms. When a business site has a mobile site along with a desktop site, you end up with more than one URL and different HTML for each site. This causes Google to have to crawl and index duplicate sites, which interferes with page ranking and can cause your site to show up on page 2 or more instead of page 1 in the web search.
With just one site it is much easier for users to share content, be engaged and interact on the site as compared to websites that have different sites for mobile and desktop. When someone shares a mobile site on social media and a friend is on a desktop and looks at the mobile site, it makes viewing less than optimal because that site is intended for mobile. If it is responsive then all users are happy with their experience.
Unhappy users will go to other sites and bounce rates increase. The site will not be able to rank on mobile searches because of this. Changing to a responsive design will not only make your potential clients happy, it will increase your chances at ranking higher through Google search.
Increase Your Conversion Rates
69% of tablet users did their shopping on their mobile device in the last 30 days. If your website is not working on mobile or tablet then you are losing these potential conversions. Developers control how these conversion elements display on each platform, optimizing your chances at more online sales. If the user has to do more work to get to the buy button you will likely lose that sale and many others. 55% of Social media happens on mobile, if people are sharing the wrong version of your website then you are also missing out on a lot of leads. Responsive design corrects all of these issues.
Case studies have found that having a responsive design will give you significantly better conversion rates. If your customers cannot experience your website properly on the device they are using it will cost you lost revenue.
Optimize User Experience
With responsive design the content automatically adjusts to whatever screen size the user is using. There is no need to fool around with pinching and squeezing the page. This is much more convenient for the user to navigate and read the site to find your products and services. When users get frustrated with a site or can’t find the content they need, there is a 61% chance that they will leave and head to another website. That next website is likely to be your competitor. If the user has a good experience and finds what they are looking for, there is a 67% chance that they will purchase a product or service from that site. The customer may also never return to your website due to the bad experience.
Beating the Competition
When users leave your website due to issues with viewing, you are most likely giving your competition those clients because the user will go to the next site in the search results after you. Not only are you losing potential sales but you are also feeding your competitor traffic.
Updating your design to give your users the best user experience will raise your rankings over time and put you ahead of all your competition who haven’t yet. 85% of adults believe that the mobile site should be as good if not better than the desktop version. If you have seen a drop in traffic or loss of sales, this could very likely be the culprit. You will also build stronger relationships with your customers. If they have a good experience they will recommend your site to friends and family.