Responsive web design sounds like something that should already be in place. “I can click buttons and go to places on my website. Looks responsive to me”

 

Dry definition

“Approach to web design aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).”

“Mobile friendly” is another term you will hear along with responsive web design.

 

Easy definition

 

Responsive web design means making your website look pretty on any device.

 

 

Why should you care? Aren’t most people just on their computer? Here are some facts:

Mobile is getting popular. 80% of internet users own a smartphone.

They aren’t just looking. 70% of mobile searches lead to online action within an hour.

 

Two things to keep in mind

Ease of use. We established people are using mobile devices, so make it easy for them, period. If they can’t browse your site easily, they’re going to look elsewhere.

Google cares. As of April 21st, 2015, Google changed the way they rank websites so that any site that isn’t mobile friendly won’t rank as high as it did before.

 

 

If your website was built on a theme in the last few years, chances are it is mobile friendly. You can check by going to your site on a mobile device and see what it looks like.

 

This is a website viewed on a desktop:

 

This is the same website viewed on a mobile device.

 

Notice the difference? That’s a good thing.

 

Is your web design as responsive as it should be?