Ways Responsive Web Design Helps Your Business
Have you found the very best web design company around? Are you confident that it can fulfill your design needs? Every business is looking for a talented web designer. The biggest mistake many people make is choosing an unsuitable designer for the project at hand. Web design is a vast field and every company has different things to offer. So how will you know if the company you are about to hire meets your unique needs?
When attending we are SEO Rockstars, we learned, first of all, to always take a good look at the designer’s portfolio. A portfolio tells a lot regarding the capability of a designer. If you do not see any designs that are appealing to you then don’t hire the web design company expecting more. Hire people you have seen can deliver what you are looking for based on the work they have done in the past.
Secondly, identify the designer’s area of interest. The only way you will know if the web design company can deliver is if you place significant thought on your project needs. Will your site require a lot of coding or print graphics? Not every designer can handle all aspects of creating a dynamic site, so always ensure you understand your project needs and hire someone with the skill and technique to fulfill them.
Additionally, always find out if the web design company can keep communication lines open throughout the designing process. You may like to review the design with board members in your company so it’s important to ensure you can communicate with the designers continuously. This is why you need to consider the location of the web designers you are about to hire. If there is the issue of the time difference, make sure it does not become a problem.
Lastly, as you request design samples from the web design company, make sure you specify that you won’t work that is in line with the needs of your project. You can get designers with portfolios that only contain edge web designs and layouts and what you are looking for is rather traditional and simple. In this case, they may not be the best people to hire. On this note, always ensure the web design company can tackle your specific needs by looking at what they have presented in their design samples.
Responsive Web Design
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, for, well, the last couple of years then you know just how important mobile optimization is when it comes to your website.
Google has recently declared they have moved to a “mobile-first” index. Meaning that if your site isn’t optimized for mobile it isn’t going to get much love from Google.
And without Google, your SEO efforts might as well equate to lighting 80% or so of each marketing dollar on fire. How did we come up with that percentage, you ask? Well, that’s just about Google’s market share over the internet regarding search-based queries.
Be Responsive, Be Responsible….
With twice as many mobile users on the web as desktop, the time you could ignore mobile has come and gone. Time to step up to the plate and ensure your mobile users get the experience with your brand they deserve.
Benefits of a Responsive Website
1. Improved Usability and Navigation
Remember the last time you got frustrated when trying to browse a site? Yeah…don’t be the site that causes that kind of aggravation. A recent study revealed that up to 40% of visitors will tell someone about a bad mobile experience on your site and will never return again.
Additionally, Google utilizes (to some unknown extent) page usability factors for ranking signals. Things like time spent on a page, number of pages visited, etc. probably play a role in SEO.
2. Speed Matters
Page load times are now well established as a key ranking signal on Google. But more so than that, page load speed is an important factor for driving conversion rates and facilitating a positive user experience.
A study by Kissmetrics revealed that visitors “dissatisfied with a site’s performance were more than 79% less likely to ever buy from that site again.” Yet another study revealed that a page load speed between 3-4 seconds can result in up to a 40% loss in traffic due to abandonment.
In today’s age, customers want information fast, and if you can’t deliver they will easily bounce to a competitor site that can.
3. Get Social
Responsive designs are inherently conducive to facilitating social sharing on mobile. And while social sharing might not directly affect your site’s rank, it will help you gain brand visibility and earn an audience.
Plan Ahead
The only thing harder than building a responsive website is reconstructing an existing project to fit the bill. Planning ahead and working with your design and marketing teams before feature and design rollouts can help ensure everyone is on the same page.
Closing Thoughts
With the number of mobile users outpacing desktops at an exponential rate, we as business owners must work to ensure we are providing the best experience possible to earn and retain customers and visitors to our properties.
If you’re unsure of where to start, or need a little expert guidance on making the transition to responsive, give us a call. We love talking shop and would like nothing more than to help out.
