Well, the short answer is yes. More and more people are browsing the internet and shopping online using their mobiles or tablets. If your site does not load well on a small screen, the user may bounce with a very likely loss of the sale or interest. Everywhere you go people are using their mobile devices to go online, they have become an intrinsic part of daily life.
Where desktop internet users have increased by 15% in the last 5 years, mobile users have increased by a staggering 120% in the same timeframe. Up to 25% of people only use their mobile to view content with 69% of people using mobiles to shop online. Social media is also a key factor here with 55% of interactions occurring via mobile device, and smartphone users checking their devices on average 150 times a day.
So, what exactly is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive design is as it sounds, its design that responds to the screen size of the device it is being viewed on. A responsive website allows for easy navigation, reading, and viewing with minimal disruption from panning, scrolling and resizing. It ensures that the user is able to view the content comfortably no matter the device they are viewing it on. You can use this handy tool to view how a site appears on different screen sizes.
Why is it so important?
SEO
As search engines only need to crawl and index one URL the SEO improves. A responsive, mobile friendly site also offers a better user experience, which is as we know, is very important to Google. A non-user friendly website, will lead to an increase in bounce rate, which in turn will affect the SEO ranking. This also means your SEO is better managed with only one campaign rather than the need for two separate ones for a website and a mobile site.
Your local search rankings should improve as responsive, mobile optimised sites tend to be favoured by search engines.
Increases conversion rates
The easier your site is to use on your customers chosen device, the more likely they are to convert. If they encounter difficulties on your site they might switch to a competitor, losing you the sale. An easy to use mobile site also increases impulsive buys. If the process is difficult, they may re-think this impulse.
Future proof and cost effective
Responsive web design is here to stay and if you aren’t already responsive it looks like you may have no option but to convert. There are undoubtedly wide reaching benefits to responsive websites and they are not as complicated to achieve as they may appear. If you have any questions regarding responsive web design, just get in touch. and we will be happy to answer them.