Have you been chatting lately with your business colleagues and heard the phrase “responsive design” pop into the conversation but didn’t have a clue what it was all about? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there and hopefully after today you’ll be educated enough to join in with your point of view the next time that conversation does arise.

Let’s first define this phrase (Wikipedia):

Responsive Design: is an 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).

With over half of all local searches being performed by users with mobile devices, and mobile devices outselling personal computers, it becomes clear where the future is heading. Think about how you feel when you search for something on Google, then try to click through and realize you cannot read the story on your mobile device because the website is not responsive.

Do you go back and read it later? Nope. The moment is lost and likely you forget all about it. The person who spent all that time writing the story and maybe even paid money for a pay-per-click advertisement wasted their money and time because you could not read anything. Don’t make that mistake.

Consider these facts:

Mobile Devices are Outselling PCs

Some people envision a time when most computing is done on the go and that’s already happening. With most local searches already happening on mobile devices, other types of searches aren’t far behind. Over 25 percent of people only have access to the net via their mobile device. That’s a lot of people to leave out if you don’t have a responsible website.

User Experiences Are Paramount

How a user feels when accessing your website is an important component in choosing responsible design. If a user visits your site and gets frustrated because they cannot access it with their device, they will not come back. Instead, they’ll find another site, a competitor’s site, and use that instead. You have moments to impress your visitor so that you can turn them into a customer.

Social Activity Is Mostly Mobile

Most social activity online happens via mobile devices. If you are using social sites to market your business and you don’t have a responsive design, you’re plain and simply wasting your time and your money. What’s the point of sharing links and information on social media if your consumers will simply click through, then bounce off due to frustration?

Search Engines Love Responsive Design

Google gives a higher ranking to responsively designed sites than those that rely on a static template, even if they offer a mobile version. Part of this has to do with the problem with duplicate sites when you have the same information on more than one URL. With a mobile template you have two separate URLs, one for mobile and one for your regular site. (Usually the mobile one is less useful).

TIP: Google even gives us detailed instructions on how to set up a responsive design which further proves this point of having a responsive design. Learn more at Google by clicking here.

Responsive Design Is Cleaner and Faster

The truth is, responsive designs look better anyway. They are cleaner, less cluttered, and work across all types of browsers. Furthermore, they’re also likely to keep working as new browsers and new mobile devices are developed. Responsive design always looks beautiful and works well no matter what. So, whether your consumers are looking at your site on a tablet, a PC, or something not invented yet, you’re covered.

The truth is, even before mobile proliferation there was a need to design websites that worked across all browsers and sizes of monitors. There has always been a need for websites to look beautiful, work well, and appeal to consumers no matter what device they use to access it. Mobile proliferation is just pushing us to realize the inevitable.

If you want to compete in today’s online market, you’re going to have to invest in responsive design. Is your website design responsive and ready for new clients?