Responsive websites adapt their layout to the device they are being viewed on, whether it’s a desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone. This makes it easier for visitors to read and navigate a website without having to constantly pan and resize the screen.
In this blog post we are going to delve into the importance of responsive design, and how it helps your website get more quality leads for your business.
Google Prefers Responsive Websites – Major SEO Benefits
Google’s search algorithm prefers responsive websites for many reasons. If your website is responsive it uses one URL, or web address, for all devices. This means less urls and less work for Google to index your site.
This creates a mess for Google and increases its workload and it is bad for search engine optimization. Due to SEO purposes it is always advised to have a responsive web design. Google explains:
With increasing smartphone usage, making a website that is friendly to smartphone users has now become a critical part of website management.
Responsive design: serves the same HTML for one URL and uses CSS media queries to determine how the content is rendered on the client side. This removes the possible glitches of user-agent detection and frees users from redirects. This is Google’s recommended configuration.
Using a separate mobile site results in Google having to index each page twice and decide which version to serve to the user in the search engine results.
It is always advised to have a responsive website design for search engine optimization.
Responsive Design Increases Conversions and is Future Friendly
Responsive websites deliver the same content that is found on the desktop site to mobile devices in a way that makes it easy to read and navigate. By making it quick and simple to navigate even on a small touch screen you are offering a customer-friendly experience that is good for your reputation and your customers are far more likely to make a purchase.
61% of mobile customers admit that they are likely to go to a competitor site after visiting a mobile unfriendly site.
Responsive web design is also the solution to improve your cost per click efficiency. Responsive websites not only rank higher in the search results but they also receive more organic inflow of traffic. This will improve your cost per click efficiency which will result in a better ROI from search investments. An example of this is Hubspot. In May 2013 Hubspot made its website design responsive and since then it has experienced a 66% increase in inbound leads. Mobile traffic has also increased from 11% to 15%, meaning more people are looking at their site on mobile devices and more people are sharing their content from mobile-to-mobile platforms.
More amazing conversion statistics:
- 70% of mobile searches lead to action within one hour – It takes one month for the same percentage of desktop users to catch up
- 90% of mobile searches lead to action and more than 50% lead to a purchase
One of the big benefits of responsive design is that the size of the template is designed based on screen size not device. This means that no matter what size screen someone is viewing your website from it will display properly for that screen size. So in the future as new devices (TVs, watches, glasses, etc.) get bigger or smaller, your responsive site will still look beautiful.
Moving forward it is extremely critical that your website provides mobile users an easy-to-use experience. Having a responsive website is no longer simply a nice feature; rather it is a necessity and will literally impact the future growth of your business. Meet your customers where they are and give them a site that is a delight to browse on any size of device – the potential return on investment is more than worth it.
What are your thoughts about responsive design? Have you already implemented a responsive design for your website or are you planning to do so soon? Share your thoughts below!
I’m so glad that I made the leap and invested in a website redesign. First of all, some numbers are coming back on the responsive site and they’re looking pretty good. 22.4% conversion rate increases. Mobile visits were up 16%. Over 200% (!) conversion rate increase for both Androids and iPhones. I’ve also gotten lots of compliments from my friends, many of which have no idea what responsive design is, they just know my site looks good from their iPhone or iPad.
It’s nice to know that Google recommends responsive design, not only does it help your website look pretty on all devices but it gives you a leg up on the competition.