Building a modern online presence for your business

In the past few years, the use of smartphones has grown exponentially. These days, more people use their mobile phones to browse the internet (52.48% in October 2019) than desktops (44.59%), and the New Zealand statistics mirror that worldwide trend.

This shift in how people consume digital content has fundamentally transformed the way businesses build their online presence. For this reason alone, it’s important to invest in responsive website design.

There is nothing worse than having to zoom or scroll across a website that hasn’t been optimised for different devices. It makes it difficult for the user to navigate and can drive away potential customers when they become frustrated with your website.

Responsive web design also removes the need to build multiple websites for smartphone and tablet users. Instead of designing a dedicated website for each different screen size – which is completely inefficient – you can create one that scales up and down automatically.

We’ve collated our years of knowledge and experience in responsive web design to explain what it is and why it’s so important for your business.

Responsive web design explained

A well-designed, responsive website can deliver as impactful an experience on a smartphone screen as it does on a desktop or any other screen. It adapts to the size of the user’s screen without compromising the aesthetic, functionality or legibility.

A responsive website includes design elements such as:

• Readable text without requiring zoom 
• Adequate space for tap targets 
• No horizontal scrolling

Responsive design can help you solve a lot of website problems. It’ll improve the look of your website, particularly on mobile devices – making it more visually appealing to potential customers. More importantly, it optimises your website’s browsing experience which can increase the amount of time visitors spend on your website and improve your search engine rankings.

Why all businesses should have a responsive website

Think about how many different devices you use in a day, and you’ll quickly realise that responsive web design is necessary for all businesses operating in today’s multi-screen society.

Here are four reasons why responsive web design is so important:

1: A seamless user experience

Unresponsive websites distort the way they appear and function on smaller devices. Text becomes jumbled, images don’t align, and users must scroll through endless pages in search of the information or tab they need.

This is something you want to avoid – you run the risk of losing valuable sales leads when your website doesn’t translate well on mobiles. Prospective customers tend to navigate away from your website when it is difficult to understand and not well optimised for their devices’ screens.

2: Cost-effective website maintenance

While responsive web design requires a slightly larger investment upfront, you’ll benefit from lower maintenance costs. Because you won’t be running two versions of your website – one mobile, one desktop – you’ll be able to spend more time on other important areas of your business.

3: Improve your Google SEO rankings

In early 2015, Google announced that mobile-friendliness would become a ranking factor in its search engine algorithms – forcing businesses to shift their focus to user experience and high-quality content. Because responsive web design creates a better user experience, it can also improve your search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts. Provide a poor experience and you’re likely to lose some ground in your search engine results.

4: Increased mobile traffic

With ever-increasing mobile-user statistics, having two separate versions of your website is time-consuming and high maintenance. A single responsive design ready for all devices will ensure you retain and drive more mobile views – keeping you ahead of your competition.

Responsive web design now industry standard

Having a responsive website can save you money, time and help you convert and retain more clients. The benefits of responsive web design extend past having a website that adapts to any size device screen. It ensures prospective customers have a seamless experience with your business online no matter what device they’re using, which will help you convert more sales leads from your online marketing efforts.

Ready to go responsive? Get in touch with the Unleashing Potential team today.