7 Benefits of Responsive Web Design for Your Business
No matter what industry you work in, your business plays a critical role in business success. Modern consumers don’t want to call companies to ask questions. They want to find information online. Responsive web designs make it easier for everyone to access the information and services that they need. When you use responsive designs, expect to see the following benefits.
Responsive web designs help websites get higher search engine rankings
For years, developers suspected that Google gave higher rankings to websites that used responsive designs. Google confirmed in 2018 that it gives preference to sites that follow best practices for mobile-first indexing.
Google spent about a year and a half experimenting with its approaches to indexing and ranking before deciding that it would prioritize mobile versions over designs made for desktop computers. If you have a design for mobile users and a design for desktop users, Google will base your ranking on the mobile version.
Responsive web designs ensure that your website always gets the ranking it deserves. Since it conforms to the requirements of diverse devices, you can count on your SEO to work even when you make designs on a desktop computer.
A higher ranking practically ensures more traffic
Your website cannot succeed without a high ranking from search engines. Nearly 29% of people click on the top result when they search for something on Google. About 16% of searchers click the second result. Only 11% will click the third result.
By the time you get to the tenth result, only 2.5% of people will click.
If your website doesn’t make it to the first, you won’t get much organic traffic. Hardly anyone ever bothers visiting the second page.
Adopt responsive web designs so you can make your website more competitive by earning a higher ranking. The more attention you get from search engine crawlers, the more organic traffic you can expect.
Responsive designs help you reach more consumers
Even if responsive web designs didn’t help sites reaching higher search engine rankings, it would still make sense for developers to use designs that adapt to mobile devices.
Global increases in smartphone penetration have made it cheaper and more convenient for consumers to shop with their mobile devices. Shoppers don’t need to visit retail stores to buy the products they need. People don’t even need to sit down at desktop or laptop computers to shop. They can find everything they want on their smartphones.
Surveys show that most people in “developed” nations own smartphones. The United Kingdom has the highest rate of ownership at 82.9%. Other countries with more than 70% of smartphone ownership include:
- Germany (79.9%)
- United States (79.1%)
- France (77.5%)
- Spain (74.3%)
- South Korea (70.4%)
Even “emerging economies” have surprisingly high levels of smartphone ownership. Overall, about 45% of people living in emerging economies have smartphones. Considering that these countries often struggle to build or maintain telecom infrastructures, many people find that smartphones offer them more reliable access to the internet. Without other affordable options, it makes sense to own multipurpose mobile devices instead of larger computers.
Shoppers use mobile devices inside stores
Perhaps you know that most of your sales come from people shopping in your stores. That doesn’t mean you can avoid the significance of mobile shopping. In fact, people probably use their smartphones while shopping in your stores.
- 69% of shoppers use their phones to read reviews before talking to store employees.
- 55% of shoppers use smartphones to find product specifications while shopping in stores.
- 53% of shoppers search for deals on their phones before speaking with employees.
For the most part, people don’t seem to like talking to retail employees. They would rather use their phones to find the information they need to compare and choose items. If you don’t have a responsive web design, you’re either annoying them with a difficult website, forcing them to talk to your employees, or encouraging them to shop elsewhere.
Earn more money with responsive web design
The motivation to adopt responsive web design becomes even more obvious when you see the amount of money involved in online sales. From November 1 to November 30, 2020, consumers in the U.S. spent $39.9 billion while shopping from their smartphones. Shoppers spent $60.7 billion from their laptops and other devices.
Considering that about 40% of the month’s revenue came from smartphone sales, you cannot afford to miss the opportunities that responsive design creates. Refusing to adapt means that you could miss nearly 40% of sales. People won’t stop buying items because your website doesn’t cooperate with them. They will simply use the websites of other companies. Your competitors will pick up the money you leave on the table.
Keep visitors engaged to lower your bounce rate
A standard, desktop-centric website design might work on a mobile device, but the content will probably load slowly and make it difficult for shoppers to find what they want to buy. Modern consumers will not tolerate long load times. Anything longer than a few seconds will send them to other sites.
As Joe Cahill, a freelance designer with more than two decades of experience working with clients like American Express and Saks Fifth Avenue, says, “We’re looking at mobile devices and getting annoyed after a three-second load. Looking for information instantaneously is going to be a key thing with how Generation Alpha interacts with devices and everything that’s going to go on around them.”
The habits of today’s youngest consumers will become economic drivers within a decade. Conforming to their preferences now broadens your brand’s appeal and keeps you on the cutting edge of technology.
You can save time and money with responsive web designs
You don’t have to use responsive web designs to reap these benefits. You can have your developers redirect mobile users to a separate site designed specifically for them. Unfortunately, this approach means that you need to pay for two websites. You don’t necessarily double your expenses because you can use some of the same assets on both versions. You will, however, spend much more than someone who chooses a responsive web design.
Best practices for responsive web designs
For the most part, responsive web design does most of the work for you by adjusting to the user’s device. You should still follow some best practices to make your site more successful. Some examples include:
- Testing website prototypes on as many devices as possible.
- Making content easy for users to scan.
- Adding call-to-action buttons.
- Choosing intuitive navigation menus.
- Using an internal search feature to keep users on your site.
Make responsive web design easy with UXPin
Get the most out of your responsive web design by reading UXPin’s ebook Responsive & Active Web Design. The ebook offers pages of advice that will put you on the path to success.Don’t struggle to make websites that respond to the demands of mobile devices. Start your free trial with UXPin, the most advanced design and prototyping tool on the market, and see how easy responsive website design becomes when you use the right prototyping tool.
