In our last installment of our Minneapolis Web Design series, we discussed why every web developer and eCommerce store owner should consider using WooCommerce, the World's most popular eCommerce solution. WooCommerce is a powerful open source eCommerce solution that is now owned by the creators of WordPress. If you are building a new WordPress eCommerce website, you should be using WooCommerce.
In our fifth installment of our Minneapolis Web Design series, we will discuss why you should be using Responsive design in your next website redesign. As always, remember to join the conversation by commenting on this blog below and don't forget to subscribe as well!
Looking for other great articles in the Minneapolis Web Design series? Check these out from our blog!
- The Best WordPress eCommerce Plugin
- The Growth Driven Design Process: Phase 2
- Growth Driven Website design vs Traditional design
why responsive design?
One website. Device Agnostic. The future of web design.
Responsive Web Design is an approach to web design aimed at building sites that provide an ideal viewing experience across a wide range of devices. A responsive built website adapts the layout of the website to the viewing environment of that specific device.
With more than half of the total internet traffic now mobile, Responsive Web Design is now more important that ever. This trend is so prevalent, Google has changed its search algorithm to favor mobile friendly websites if the search was made from a mobile device. Which brings us to our first reason to use responsive design:
1. Why Responsive Design? Google loves it. That is why.
Google states that responsive design is their recommended website configuration. In their own words, they refer to responsive web design as the "industry best practice". This is centered around the fact that responsive design websites have one URL and use the same code regardless of the device the end user is viewing the website on. This makes it easier for Google to crawl and index your website. Mobile websites work differently. Separate mobile content has a separate URL and separate code that it uses for both computers and mobile devices. On top of all of this, Google favors responsive design because content that lives on a single website and a single URL is much easier for users to interact with and link to than content that is on a separate mobile site. This does not create an optimal user-experience and with the large emphasis Google is now placing on user-experience as a ranking factor, this is a must from an SEO perspective.
2. Device Agnostic.
Your users/customers are not using just one device to access your website. In reality, over half of online consumers use multiple devices when shopping for a product. Think about this scenario: You are having a quick cup of coffee at your local Starbuck's and you decide to do a bit of shopping on your phone while you sip that sweet nectar of life. All of a sudden you find a website that has the product that you are looking for and decide to continue to research this product on the same website when you get home, but instead of continuing to research this product on your phone you decide to pull out your laptop. If the website that you are viewing is a responsive design, you will most likely have a positive user-experience when transitioning from mobile to desktop because you will view the same website on your desktop computer. In circumstances where there are separate websites for mobile and desktop users, a user could become frustrated with the fact that you have to locate the product all over again because the two websites are different builds and organized differently. The last thing you want is for a user or potential customer to be frustrated when possibly making a purchasing decision, right?
3. Built for now and the future.
If you work with the right developer and you most likely will have a well built responsive website and a web solution for today, tomorrow, and for years to come. As technology and specifically mobile technology seems to change daily, responsive web design continues to keep up. Responsive web design continues to meet the needs of all devices, browsers, and most importantly screen sizes. Other mobile website options depend on today's standards and if technology changes, these mobile websites can become obsolete. While responsive design isn't the end all be all, it currently has the most potential for longevity of any website design solution today.
4. One website = easier to manage.
Having a separate desktop and mobile website requires two of everything. Two SEO campaigns. Two websites to update. Two websites to back up. Managing one website and one SEO campaign is far easier than managing two and this is a key advantage of a responsive website. Not only is it easier to have one website but it also saves a ton of time and money in the original design stage. Another added benefit is that your development team will love you because they don't have to develop two different sets of content every time you want to make a change or add to your website. When you need to make a change to your website, it is all done in one place.
Responsive web design is favored by Google, is Device Agnostic, is built for now and the future and is much easier to manage than two separate websites. So why are there still companies using separate desktop and mobile websites? The most likely answer is that they were already committed to this design method before responsive design became so prevalent. Yes, companies like Amazon and eBay still use separate desktop and mobile websites BUT have you seen Walmart's new website? One of the biggest retailers in the world has recently switched to a responsive design and it is only a matter of time until the rest of them follow suit. So next time you are asking yourself "Why Responsive design?" Remember that when you want to reach the most users/customers and grow your business, it is imperative that you choose the best web solution for your company. For most small to medium sized businesses, responsive design is the best option for you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog post!
In our sixth installment of our Minneapolis Web Design series, we will explore why every company, whether you sell online or not, should be securing their website with an SSL certificate. If you missed our last Minneapolis Web Design series post, click here to check out "Minneapolis Web Design: The Best WordPress eCommerce Plugin".
