Reasons for responsive

We’ve all become accustomed to the term ‘mobile website’ or ‘responsive web deign’, and we now tend to build for responsive by default, or at least we should be.

With this years changes to Google search results – referring to the ‘mobile-friendly’ tag, it’s important that our clients are now looking to make headway to ensure their website works across multiple devices. I put this list together to help our team sell the benefits of a responsive website:

Mobile usage is exploding.
30% of searches are performed on a mobile device (Oct 14)
6.5% of searches are performed on a tablet (Oct 14)
26% of all emails are opened on mobile phones, 10% on tablet.

Positive user experience.
If a user lands on your website and is frustrated or doesn’t see what they are looking for, there’s a 61% chance they will leave immediately and go to another site (most likely a competitor), the opposite – if they have a positive experience with your mobile website, a user is 67% more likely to buy or use a service from you.

Blogging and social activities channel mobile visitors.
55% of social media consumption happens on a mobile device. Shared content will likely be viewed from a link on a mobile, without a mobile friendly website you are going to experience a high bounce rate and low conversions, plus frustrate your audience.

Responsive design is preferred for SEO.
A recent update from Google incorporated the ‘mobile-friendly’ label which it includes in searches next to a site which is deemed to be viewed correctly on a mobile device. It also announced that these sites would in fact rank better than a ‘non mobile-friendly’ website. This is only going to become more and more apparent.

Check if your website is mobile-friendly: google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly.

Speed is important.
There is this myth about “the fold” although when referring to responsive websites it is recommended that content above the fold on a mobile is loaded in under 1 second and the entire page in 2. This is not at all possible when trying to load a desktop website on a mobile. Speed will again frustrate a user who will potentially leave your site. Speed is a factor in ranking.

Check the speed of your website: google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights.

Responsive adapts to future devices
Responsive is based on screen size and not device size so will fit all resolutions. Who knows where smartphones are going in the future – having a mobile website is no longer a nice feature, it’s a necessity, it’s just a question of when.