Nielson research shows that 81% of Internet users search the web using a smartphone. So if your website is not mobile ready, a big chunk of your visitors will be getting a poor user experience. With the introduction of “Mobilegeddon” – Google’s new mobile friendly update, not having a responsive website also means that you would be penalized in terms of SEO.
So What is Responsive Web Design (RWD)?
RWD is a web designing and development strategy that adapts to the screen resolution, size and orientation of the user’s screen. In other words, it will render your site for optimal user experience on your visitors’ device.
The following are the main benefits of embracing the technique.
SEO Benefits
If your website doesn’t render well on mobile devices, you will be losing to your competitors in terms of search engine rankings. Responsiveness is now an essential strategy if you want visibility online.
A responsive website also helps improve user experience, another important factor that Google takes into account when ranking your website.
Better User Experience
RWD helps in improving user experience on your website. This could mean better conversion rates and general goodwill from your customers and prospects.
Savings on Mobile Development
Having a design that automatically adapts to mobile and PC also means that you won’t have to build another mobile site, potentially saving you thousands of dollars in development and maintenance costs. Any content that you put online will only have to be published and optimized once. This cuts back on time and effort, as well as eliminates any risk of being penalized for duplicity.
Stay Ahead of the Competition
When Google rolled out its mobile friendly algorithm in April, it reported that only a fraction of websites were mobile ready. A few weeks after the roll out there was only a 4% increase in the number of mobile-friendly sites. The fact is that responsive web design is still a relatively new strategy and something not yet embraced by many small business websites. This gives you an immediate big advantage over your competitors.
If you are concerned about your search engine rankings, RWD is a major step in the direction. It is a onetime investment that gives you long term help with your SEO efforts.
