What’s A Responsive Website
One of the most common terms you’ll see if you’re looking to build or rebuild your company’s website is “responsive”. It shows up all the time, usually without any explanation. What exactly does it mean? And does it matter? Let’s talk a little about what “responsive” is and why it matters.
First, we need to be blunt: it’s essential to have a responsive website.
What Are You Responding To?
Of course, a responsive website is responding to something. But what is it? A hint comes from another name for it: “mobile-friendly”.
The term means that the site adjusts itself to the size and format of the screen you’re viewing it on. Think about your web browsing habits. You may be reading this on your cell phone. A bit later, you might sit down to contact us through your desktop computer. At some point, you might come back to confirm something with a tablet.
Each of those devices is a different size. They’re even a different format – a desktop screen is normally wider than it is tall. But a phone or tablet is tall and narrow. As you can imagine, that can cause a lot of difficulties when trying to look at the same content.
A responsive website is coded so that it recognizes the size of the screen and makes adjustments accordingly. So you might see three pictures across on your laptop screen, but they could be one below the other on your phone. Text sizes may need adjustment. There might even be some sections that show on one device but not on another.
A Brief and Incomplete History of Responsive Sites
We don’t want to get into all the details of how responsive sites developed. We’ll stick to some early problems that they fixed.
When mobile devices first began offering web browsers, there was a big problem. They were too narrow and too small to read web pages. But that’s all we had. So we were stuck scrolling from side to side and spreading our fingers to enlarge the screen if we wanted to be able to read anything.
Of course, that wasn’t acceptable. So many companies started creating a separate version of their website for mobile devices. They usually had a different subdomain, so there were a lot of sites for mobile that started with “m.” This meant more programming, more updates were needed, and users often had to remember to use the right address or click an extra link to get to it.
Finally, though, the possibility of developing a single site that would work on all devices evolved. Now, using CSS and HTML, the site could figure out how to contort itself to still look great no matter what device you use.
Why Responsive Sites Are Crucial
So why not stick with a standard site? It all comes down to numbers.
As of 2019, 52.6% of all website traffic came from mobile devices. That means that less than half of website visitors are using a laptop or desktop for their browsing. That’s up from just over 31% at the beginning of 2015. It’s likely to continue to climb, too.
We have freedom like never before. We can take our technology with us. We’re not stuck at a desk anymore.
Not having a responsive site means at worst you’re missing out on traffic. At best, you’re frustrating your site visitors. You’ll also have a serious struggle to rank your website well in search. Google has stated they prefer mobile-friendly sites.
How Do I Know If My Website is Responsive?
It’s simple to test whether your website is responsive or not. If you have a smartphone on hand, go to your site. Can you read the text? Is it easy to navigate? Does it fit within your screen without any need to scroll to the side?
If you don’t have a cell phone handy, open a new tab in your browser and go to your site. Then shrink your browser window. There’s usually an icon in the upper right to do so. Once it’s not full screen, you can drag the edge. Drag it to as narrow a window as possible. How does your site look? If it’s responsive, you’ll see it make adjustments as you narrow the window. If it’s not responsive, you’ll end up with a horizontal scroll bar and text or images that disappear off the edge.
Conclusion
In short: if your site isn’t responsive, you’re missing out on a lot of traffic. And if you don’t get traffic, you won’t get conversions. If you haven’t yet moved to a responsive site, you should do so soon. Take advantage of the current state of the internet and how people use it so that you can maximize your potential!