Responsive Web Design by Absolute
02 / 04 / 2015

Four reasons you should have a responsive website

Author

Shaun Barrio

Category

Blogs

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"Now more than ever, we’re designing work meant to be viewed along a gradient of different experiences. Responsive web design offers us a way forward."

The discipline of responsive website design was first proposed by Ethan Marcotte in 2010. In the four years since, we have seen many responsive websites launched or redesigned, and we have learned from the different techniques used along the way.

However, many are yet to make the change so we will discuss four key reasons why a responsive website can be of benefit to you.

The mobile audience

The ever-growing audience of mobile and tablet users accounts for 38% of all web traffic, a year-on-year increase of 56% (Source: StatCounter). This may mean that more than 1 in 3 visitors are not being served with a suitable experience when viewing your website. What’s more, this trend in web traffic shows no signs of slowing down.

Upscaling your website

And if those numbers alone aren’t enough to convince you, when you look beyond the large number of devices available and also consider the variety of desktop screen sizes too, you may realise that it is not only the mobile audience that is being neglected. In fact, Full HD monitors have jumped from being the fourth most common screen resolution to second in the last year. Allowing this audience to get the best out of their larger screens when viewing your website serves them with a much better experience.

Search Engine Favourability

Google have openly endorsed responsive website design so it can have a positive impact on your search engine ranking. When returning search results, Google will favour websites that serve a good experience to the user. Therefore, if your website provides a good mobile experience you may rank higher in a search made on mobile. Your website should also have a lower bounce rate as users are now coming to expect to receive responsive websites and are more inclined to leave immediately when this is not the case, particularly on mobile devices.

A Future Proof Investment

As the basis behind responsive website design is to be all-inclusive, this is in effect future proofing the website against the release of new devices. We are already seeing this in action with the release of Retina and Ultra HD screens.