The Importance of Responsive Web Design | Why It Is Essential to Get Right

by | Mar 11, 2022 | Web Design


Responsive web design is an approach suggesting that the design and development of a website should be able to respond to a user’s behaviour and choice of device. Responsive web design will take screen size, orientation, and device into consideration when adjusting your website.

The main importance of responsive web design is that your website can change and adjust for as many screens as possible, and be effective on both desktop, and in particular, mobile.

What we know is that Google has adjusted the way in which it indexes web pages. In 2016, Google unveiled a shift in this indexing practice. All it was, was a shift from the indexing of a website based off its desktop version, to its mobile version. This was done because the amount of mobile users has far outgrown desktop, and has been increasing every year since the change was made.

The reason for this increase in mobile users is largely due to the tech industry as a whole, and how we have adopted the use of portable super computers to make life easier, rather than being plugged into a wall.

With a shift in the way in which people engage with work, it is remarkable how much you can do with your phone. This has been clearly recognised with the increase in remote work that people have been forced to adopt, and the increase in devices that major companies like Samsung, Apple, and Google have been churning out, year on year.

What this means is that working professionals and a lot of your potential clientele will be viewing your website from a mobile device. What this means is that we need to step away from thinking about web design on a 1920×1080 ratio, and embrace the responsive web design principles that have made the world change its online device habits.

Here are some quick tips to help you better understand the way in which you approach web design, as well as the importance of Responsive Web Design as a constant practice.

Tip 1: Understand how your users view your site on Mobile?

More often than not, your general users will come to your site via mobile. What this means, is that you will need to have a responsive web design implemented into your website’s layout. Doing so will help your website adapt to any of the screen shapes and sizes that come with the large device selections that exist on the market today.

Most people when they view a mobile website want to get their information quickly. This is usually shown by how a user will only skim the first parts of the page to find the information that they came for. What tends to be overlooked is the nature of search engines. Google for instance is actually an informational search engine. It is constantly trying to give users the most relevant information, and the most accurate information as quickly as possible. Google clearly does a good job of this, as 70% of users don’t actually go beyond the first search engine results page or SERP. What this means is that you need to follow some basic SEO principles to get your site showing up on page 1 of Google, as well as making sure that your site showcases the most important information within the first 4 seconds.

People who view websites on mobile, tend to have a strong idea of what they are searching for. They will be looking for the information quickly, and if they can’t find it, they will bounce from your site.

With this understanding, it is important that you have good and easy to access information be the first thing people see when they view the mobile version of your website

Tip 2: Understand how social media relates to your Web Design?

Something that can impact the outcome of your website traffic for mobile in a big way is how well you use and engage on social media.

Social media plays a big role in your website’s marketing and is a big indicator of the importance of responsive web design. This is because social media is predominately engaged on a mobile device. The overwhelming of Facebook, Instagram, and twitter users will consume content from the platform on a mobile device. The majority around 55% of social media is conducted on a mobile device, and 47% is consumed on desktop/laptop devices mostly. The remaining 3% is on tablet devices, like and iPad.

Bearing all this in mind, what we know is that a considerable amount of people will find your website through social media. Making sure that the content you share is not only of a high quality, but is also following the same branding guidelines as your website is important.

There is nothing worse for a user to like how you represent yourself on social media, to then struggle to navigate your website on their mobile device, which carries different colours, or a completely different type of design language.

Social media needs to be as authentic a voice as possible for your business, and then your website needs to be able to back it up and expand. If you do not have that connection, then the likelihood of getting conversions, or good website retention is going to become a harder goal to attain.

SUM UP

Overall Responsive web design is about having a system in place to allow your website to alter efficiently between devices. Doing so optimizes the experience for mobile users that visit your site through organic search results from Google, or from links provided on your social media accounts.

Understanding the role of mobile-related web activity, and social media behaviors are going to help you make the right decisions when it comes to creating your website. Be sure to pay close attention to your data as it comes in, notice the spread of users from mobile you receive, and be sure to look after that audience with responsive web design, and a clear and very practical website.