In today's world, it’s unimaginable to run a business without having an online presence. The first step to establishing a presence is creating a website, which will serve as the first point of contact with your business.
If you want to stand out from your competition, having just any kind of website is not enough in 2024. It needs to be optimized to the highest standards, and it’s crucial that it looks good across all the devices that people typically use.
This is where responsive web design comes into play.
What is Responsive Web Design
In simple terms, it means that the website responds to the size of the device that it’s being viewed on.
Generally, there are 3-4 device groups that websites adjust to:
- Desktop
- Laptop
- Tablet
- Mobile
If a website works well across all devices, it means that it’s responsive.
Benefits of Responsive/Mobile-First Design
Increased Mobile Traffic
“Over 50% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices (Statista, 2021).”
Google has transitioned to mobile-first indexing, which means it primarily uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. If your site is not mobile-friendly, it can negatively impact your search rankings.
A responsive website can help capture this significant portion of the audience who are browsing on mobile.
Faster Loading Time
53% of mobile site visitors will leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load (Google).
Responsive design techniques can help reduce loading time by optimizing images and other assets for mobile.
Higher Conversion Rates
Mobile users who have a positive experience on a website are 67% more likely to buy a product or service from that site (Google).
Think of it this way: if you’re browsing on a mobile device and open a site that’s not optimized for a phone, would you stay on it, or would you click the next link that works perfectly?
Enhanced Performance
Mobile-first design focuses on performance optimization, ensuring faster load times and better functionality on mobile devices (PageSpeed Insights).
Improved performance leads to better user retention and higher SEO rankings.
Future-Proofing Your Website
A truly responsive website thinks ahead and optimizes for all possible screen sizes. As new technologies and devices emerge, a responsive design allows your website to remain current and functional.
Conclusion
From UX to search ranking, an optimized and responsive website can make or break a business. Tools like Squarespace and WordPress do boast that their websites are responsive, but that isn’t really enough.
A modern website takes into account all other variables as well. This is where a developer is needed. To truly have a responsive website that’s well-optimized and fast, a hand-coded website solution is essential. Speed is not only important for the user experience, but it’s also how Google ranks your site.
That’s our mission at SpeedStack. We do our best to get your website to 100% on the core web vitals so you can stand out from your competition.