WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE A RESPONSIVE SITE?

Having a working website is great, but we often forget the importance of it performing well on a mobile device. When Google decided that they were going to introduce mobile-first indexing they implemented a few rules to simplify the process of how they index a site.

First, Google starts with crawling the mobile version of your website, which is how they determine rankings. For instance, if your website is not mobile-friendly, this will negatively affect your rankings. So what does it mean for your site to be a 'responsive' site? A responsive website allows you to serve all devices, allowing for specific screen size adjustments throughout your site.

Most importantly, responsive web design optimizes the user’s browsing experience, while allowing your website to look great and work well on a desktop, laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone browser. 

BENEFITS OF A RESPONSIVE WEBSITE

• Better User Experience (UX): Often users don't stay on your website for a longer amount of time because they have a hard time navigating through the pages. User experience is more important than ever. If a visitor is entering a site through a mobile device and is able to navigate through your website without any confusion, they will have a good experience and this could lead to higher rankings.
• Reduces Page Load Time: When Google crawls a site, they consider page load time as one of the factors when ranking. Mobile responsive will load faster and will eventually lead to a more positive user experience and an increase in rankings. 
• Lowers Bounce Rate: Bounce rate is a timed percentage that is derived from when a visitor enters and exits your website without navigating through the other pages on your site. By having a lower bounce rate, it tells us that we are giving visitors the "next click instructions" and can help you understand that your pages are clean and organized.

Factors that Impact Mobile Responsiveness

There are many factors that come into play when making your website responsive that will lead to improved SEO rankings. The use of mobile devices has increased quickly and has overtaken desktop search as the main method of viewing websites.

Since Google announced that mobile-friendliness would become a ranking factor in it's search engines algorithms, having a working, professional, and responsive site allows for improved mobile user experience. Converting your website to mobile responsive is critical to improved user experience and increased Google rankings. This is due to the following:

• Reasonable load times for pages (about 3 seconds or less)
• Content which fits a device's screen without the need for horizontal scrolling
• Text that is at a readable size to avoid zooming in or out
• Links and buttons that are spaced out from each other to steer clear from clicking the wrong links

Ultimately, having a mobile responsive design will not only improve the design of your site, but it will also help you deliver your content in an organized, digestible, and easy to understand format. By adding a responsive design to your website you will avoid unnecessary zooming, scrolling, resizing or panning that comes with websites that have not been optimized for numerous devices. 

Contact Us for a Responsive Website Audit

Having a responsive site is increasingly important for user experience and search engine rankings. We encourage you to take a good look at your website on a mobile device and see how it performs.  If you are finding layout issues, slow page loads, missing menu items, or other issues, then that is what your prospects are experiencing, as well as Google!   Contact us to learn more about how we can quickly turn your site mobile responsive.