Responsive web design is a mouthful, but it is a term that you should get familiar with if you want customers to visit your business. Even if you are a brick-and-mortar store you need to optimize your website for mobile use or you will miss out on customers. Why? Because your customers aren’t likely to window shop in person, they are going to window shop on Google and if your website isn’t displaying properly, they will go elsewhere. Take a look at the following to dissect why responsive web design is so important, and then a few useful tips to help improve it.
Your Customers Are Online
In the modern world, mobile devices make up around 64% of organic search results, which continues to rise. That means over half of your potential customers are searching for you with a mobile device, what will they see when they stumble onto your website? If your website is not optimized, they won’t see you. Responsive web design solves that problem by ensuring your website displays correctly regardless of how it is accessed.
Your Target Audience is Likely on a Mobile Device
Mobile devices make up 55% of the e-commerce market, while desktop devices make up 42%. What this means for you as a business owner is that your target audience is more likely to be on a mobile device than they are to be on a computer. That makes responsive web design even more important. Catering to the needs of your browsers will help boost your conversion rates.
Your Target Audience is On the Move
As a local business that doesn’t do much online, you might make the mistake of thinking that local searches aren’t necessary. You might even think you don’t need to bother with responsive web design because pedestrian and car traffic will be enough. This is absolutely not true. 97% of people look up a business before they visit it, and 80% of local searches result in conversions. This means the opposite is actually true- local businesses have the most to gain by targeting customers who are online looking for them.
Google is Judging You
Finally, it’s simply good business practice to have a responsive web design. Google judges businesses that don’t have an optimized web page, so if your website is slow to load or not loading on mobile phones, it will hurt your search ranking. Given the time it takes to build a strong SEO value, it’s just smart business to optimize your business for mobile access.
How to Build a More Responsive Web Design
Ready to take the leap? Building a responsive web design doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task. In fact, if you get more sales then it will pay for itself. Here are a few steps that will help you get there.
1. Research How Customers Find You
Your website analytics can help you figure out how to optimize your website for your target audience. Find out what devices they use to access your website and the content that is accessed the most frequently. If you are a restaurant, it might be your menu while a service shop may find their contact page is pulled up frequently.
2. Hire Someone to Help with Responsive Web Design
The biggest perk of responsive web design is that if it is executed correctly, it will allow your website to appear on all platforms, screens, and devices. Some special coding is all that is necessary to make your website automatically adjust for mobile users.
3. Consider a Dedicated Mobile Website
If you perform step one and find that your website is accessed by more than 50% of mobile users, or have a website that requires user interaction it might not be a bad idea to build a mobile website. This is especially true for websites that sell items or require data input.