Go Responsive: That's Our (and Google's) Advice

A number of months back I knew that Responsive Web Design was going to be huge, but I certainly didn’t know how big. If you’re not sure what responsive design is – it’s basically one website that works on every device (smartphone, laptop, PC and tablet). With 25%+ of people visiting your website from a smartphone you really should be thinking about it. It also makes the user-experience of your website much pleasurable. I’ve said it before “It’s all about the user-experience”. 

 

If you’ve looked at the Webtrade.ie, SimIVF or even the Irish Times and the Boston Globe websites you may notice that we’ve all gone to a responsive design.

There are a good few reasons to be honest, but the most important ones to us are

 

• Increasing amount of people visiting our site from mobile devices. 25% (up from 11% in 2012) and rising by 50% per year. That means by the end of 2013 we’ll have almost 40% of our visitors coming from a mobile device or tablet!

• User-experience. The simple fact of it is that once you have a responsive website your site is easier to navigate, especially on a mobile or tablet. Give the people what they want; simplicity.

• Future-proofing; that’s right preparing for the future. With a responsively designed website you’re already preparing yourself for the next launch by Apple, Android or whoever. 

• Google says so: If you don’t believe me have a look at this article published by Google; responsive web design is their preference in web design.

• Look at your stats (you’re gonna be shocked) and see how many people are accessing your site via mobile

• Re-look at your website. How does it look on a mobile or tablet? How would you like it to look?

• Start thinking about your websites message. Does is lead people through a journey to completing your goal? Is it hard to find information? What does the homepage say about your business? 

 

Once you’ve identified what you want your website to do and say then it’s time to contact your web design company. They should be able to help you transform your website from what it is into a website that is optimised for every device out there. 

We’ve seen an increase in visitors and a marked improvement in our goal conversions; this is a sure sign that our new responsive website is working. The people contacting us are more qualified, which means our website is working. This is clearly down to the new sleek and stylish website design. We’ve also noticed a huge difference in the way people interact with our website (we have video software to keep an eye on things), they are going where we want them to.  

 

At the end of the day we want to make it as easy for people to navigate their way around our website and we definitely want them to contact us. What do you want people to do when they get to your website?