Why is it important to develop responsive websites?

Responsive web design is a flexible solution to multi-screen problems. Rather than building a unique mobile version, developers build a flexible design with features which offer cross browser compatibility. Responsive sites come with technologies that automatically respond to the user’s device, based on its screen size, platform and orientation.

With the constant increase in smartphone usage and the launch of Google's 'mobilegeddon', the demand for mobile responsive sites have gone up. Businesses prefer responsive web design (RWD) over separate website interfaces. Built-in responsive design for websites helps to maintain customer retention and interaction. Users enjoy the flexibility to access a responsive site from any device of their choice without complaining about distorted content or slow loading time.

Here are some pointers which highlight why you should develop a responsive website:

Boosts search engine results:

• From SEO perspective, it is important to have a viewport tag for cross-browser compatibility. And therefore, developers add the viewport tag on the responsive sites to make it even more compatible across various devices.

• For a website's accessibility, navigation is an important feature. Responsive web designs are user-friendly and they facilitate easy navigation from any device.

• Responsive websites have great page loading speed across all devices. This feature increases viewership of a website.

• According to the data published by Smart Insights in early 2016, 80% of Internet browsing are performed using smartphones. Therefore, the importance of responsive websites are ever increasing even more.

• It has been noticed that responsive mobile sites reduce bounce rate that eventually helps in SEO rankings.

• Moreover, Google recommends responsive designs for sites for better indexing and crawling. 

Cost Effective:

Instead of having different designs of your website for different devices, it is cost effective to have one design of your website for all devices. Moreover, for a responsive site, the template is designed based on screen size and not device, which means that you don't have to invest on your website design every time a smartphone is launched.

All in all, responsive designs are gaining popularity for quite a few years now. The features and benefits of a responsive web design are indeed attractive. User-friendly and cost effective, responsive sites are definitely noteworthy.