What Is A Responsive Website?
What the heck is a responsive website? If you aren’t a web designer then that’s a fair question. It’s also a question you need to know the answer to before you know why you need it.
An easy way to show what a responsive website is would be to grab the right side of your browser on this website. Drag the window to the left and you’ll notice everything shrinks and as you drag further it also will re-orient into different positions.
That is what a responsive website is, and here’s a nice picture that shows how content might re-orient depending on the device it’s viewed on.
The fact content re-orients itself depending on the size of the browser window is only part of it, though. The beauty of a responsive website is that it will fit device screen sizes that haven’t even been invented yet!
There are many benefits your business will experience with a responsive website also. If your business has a website then a responsive is a must. If your business doesn’t have a website, you need to get one and it should be responsive.
It’s time to look at why your business will benefit from a responsive website.
Why Responsive Is Important To Your Business
There are probably a lot more reasons why a responsive website is the way to go than I can give here, but these are the most important.
How customers find your business has changed drastically and even in the United States is still changing as mobile users continue to grow which leads me to the first point.
Mobile Traffic Is Exploding
According to Google, in 2015 more Google searches happen on mobile devices than they do on a computer in many countries (source).
What does that mean to you?
Your customers are most likely finding your business online from their mobile device, possibly while they’re on the go. Your website needs to be able to handle visitors from their mobile devices and do it well.
If the majority of Google searches coming from mobile devices isn’t enough for you, then Facebook might convince.
Nearly 90% of Facebook’s daily active users are at least partly on a mobile device.
According to Facebook, their daily active users around the world in Q4 of 2015 was 1.03 billion users. Of those 1.03 billion users, 934 million of those daily active users were active on a mobile device (source).
That means that nearly 90% of Facebook’s daily active users are at least partly on a mobile device. If you boil the numbers down a bit to monthly active users using ONLY a mobile device, that number is still an extremely high 51%!
There’s a good chance you receive visitors to your website from Facebook, and there’s at least a 50% chance they’re coming to your website from a mobile device.
It’s Good For Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Having a website that is made to work on a computer AND mobile devices is good for SEO, and it’s only going to get better. Google puts an emphasis on search results towards websites that are mobile friendly.
While the emphasis is minor now, there’s a good chance Google will tune its search results in the future to push non-mobile friendly websites further down in search results.
Google has even revamped mobile results to give them a better visual presence in search results.
Check out what they look like:
A responsive website goes beyond a typical mobile-friendly website, though. Many mobile-friendly websites look quite different between the mobile version and the computer version. That’s because there’s a separate website for mobile devices, and those can make it difficult to tell you’re on the same companies website.
This experience for a customer can be confusing and create an inconsistent online brand presence for your customers. That leads to the next point, the importance of a consistent online brand to make a positive first impression.
Make Your Mark Online
Customer service comes in many ways when customers interact with your brand. The Internet has introduced yet another way a customer comes into contact with your business for the first time.
The first impression you make on a customer sets the stage for the rest of their interactions with you and your employees. Online, the customers first impression is often your website.
Your customer’s first impression should be amazing, and an amazing website is part of that. A responsive website gives your customers a consistent and amazing first impression.
The first impression you make on a customer sets the stage for their experience.
Be Ready For Customers
Your business is going to be talked about on social media. You’re also going to be sharing the great things you’re doing on social media.
Customers coming from social media sites are often going to be coming from a mobile device as we saw with Facebook. This isn’t unique to Facebook, though. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc are all very mobile-centric which means visitors are going
Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc are all very mobile-centric which means visitors are seeing your website from a small screen and using their fingers to navigate it.
Making a customer zoom in and out on your website and attempt to navigate a site designed for a mouse cursor isn’t the nicest way to treat someone you’re hoping will do business with you.You wouldn’t build a storefront and put an
You wouldn’t build a storefront and put an obstacle course at the door, would you?
You wouldn’t want to do that to a visitor online.
It’s important to be ready for customers coming from social media. It’s only a matter of time before most of your website visitors are coming from mobile.
A responsive website will make sure visitors to your website from social media will be greeted with the experience they deserve.
How Does It Help My Business?
Aside from some of the benefits I mentioned above, your business will experience other benefits that stem from a great first impression and seamless customer experience.
Conversion Time – A seamless customer experience takes the guesswork out of doing business with you. The less friction customers experience, the more likely they are to buy from you.
That means make it easy for a customer to get what they’re looking for and make it easy to contact you. If a customer has to zoom in and out or worse, can’t read your website at all, they’re going to go elsewhere and they won’t wait around.
The less friction customers experience, the more likely they are to buy from you.
Keep Them Happy – The first experience to your website is the customer’s first experience with your business. From the first time you want to make the customer happy until the moment they contact you, and then you can impress them even more with your great customer service and knowledge about the customer’s needs.
Customers Will Find You – The benefits your website will experience in SEO means that your website could rank higher in search results. The higher your website ranks in search results, the more likely your customers are to find your business.
More Money – One of the reasons you’re in business is to make money. A responsive website will lead to your business making more money with higher customer satisfaction, better customer retention, and a more memorable business brand.
Each piece of your customer’s experience is important to your overall business’s success, a great responsive website is part of that experience.
Conclusion
Your business website is one piece of your customer’s experience. Just as a clean, accessible store and a friendly smile are important to customers, a clean, accessible and easy to use website is just as important.
There is a good chance your customers are going to have their first experience with your business online, even if they learn about you elsewhere. Make sure you’re ready to give customers a great experience with a responsive website.
If you’re not ready to give customers a great experience online, it could be doing your business more harm than good.
I can help convert your website from an expense that doesn’t contribute to the overall wellbeing of your business into a website with