Once upon a time, responsive website designs were considered a marketing luxuries. As smartphones and tablets became more common, so did internet searches on them, and Google adjusted its algorithm to accommodate this shift in user behavior.
For mobile searches, Google, Bing, and other search engines began prioritizing responsive websites. These websites adapted to a variety of screen widths, making browsing easier for customers.
So, how can you make your website more responsive for your visitors?
Research Your Site Visitors
Every brand has its own distinct target market. These clients might use a variety of gadgets or just one or two. Knowing which devices are most popular will aid you in creating a responsive website that meets their needs. This will assist you in creating a timeline for accommodating each device.
Find out how your website’s visitors use it. What’s the first page they go to? Which page in particular is most likely to result in a sale? The answers to these questions will assist you in determining how to prioritize your things.
Make flexibility a top priority
More than a decade ago, Ethan Marcotte created the term “responsive design.” Since then, responsive design has evolved into its own entity. Thousands of web designers have attempted to recreate Marcotte’s concept and have defined and redefined it.
Nonetheless, when he talks about responsive web design, he emphasizes flexibility. Instead of designing a website with a rigid or ideal shape, he argues that designers should construct a website that evolves in response to varied stimuli from visitors. Fluid grids and even fluid images are examples of this.
Clear Navigation
Clear navigation is always vital, and this concept applies to your responsive design as well. If the home or menu button is difficult to find, visitors will become frustrated and depart, increasing your bounce rate. Also, remember that navigation is crucial for conversion.
Too many businesses miss out on sales possibilities because potential customers can’t figure out how to get in touch with them, request a quote, download the app, or shop online.
Images and graphics should be optimized as much as possible
The importance of content in marketing cannot be overstated. For SEO, text, pictures, and video are all vital. Image and video material, on the other hand, demand more bandwidth to host and load. This can cause a website to load slowly. The following ideas from Digital.gov might help you improve your photos for mobile-friendly webpages.
Limit Page Size: The longer it takes for a page to load, the bigger it is. Smartphones also place a limit on how much downloaded content is stored in the cache for later use. JavaScript, gzip compression, and CSS consolidation are all possible answers.
Optimize Images: As the quality of a photograph has improved, so has the size of the photograph. Although access to the original quality is crucial, website shrinking can reduce user load time, which is exactly what you want. Your website designer may help you decide on the optimal size or ratio for your site, which will be determined by the design.
Prompt Specific Keyboards
Touchscreen phones are now the standard, yet there was a time when people typed on phones using physical keyboards. Touchscreens enhance viewing, but they make typing more difficult since users must navigate between virtual keyboards to access punctuation, numbers, and letters.
Your website uses keyboard triggers to open specific keyboards for entering information. When entering monetary quantities or phone numbers, for example, the site will display a numeric pad. The alphabetic keyboard is then used to type in a name.
Design Before Building
Start with a design, whether you’re creating a new website from scratch or updating an existing one. Don’t just construct something and then try to improve it later. This could put you behind schedule and perhaps limit your alternatives.
You may solve these concerns and more when you start with a design, after considering all the technicalities:
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- What colors pop and contrast nicely with one another?
- What photographs would look best with these colors and the overall design?
- Will the text font and size be readable by elderly and those with visual impairments?
- How should the text be arranged to take into consideration the length of a paragraph on different screens?
- Is a specific add-on, such as an online store or a chatbot, required for the website?
Keep It Minimalistic
Over the last few years, minimalist website designs have been increasingly fashionable. While some people loathe the look, there’s no denying that minimalism makes things more functional. It clears the junk that causes longer loading times. Users will find it easy to navigate because to the lightweight design.
Working with a creative specialist will allow you to build a one-of-a-kind, minimalist product that reflects your business. Minimalism also makes it simple to draw attention to specific elements on your website or buttons that you want visitors to interact with. As a result, simple website designs frequently result in higher conversion rates.
Periodic Reviews
Website design and upkeep can appear to be a time-consuming procedure. It’s no surprise that many business owners build a website once and then abandon it for years. The reality is that algorithms change on a daily basis, and your website will need to be reviewed on a regular basis to stay competitive.
Professionals will use technologies like Responsinator to look for problems and test usability on your site. Marketing experts may also assess how well your website compares to its competitors, whether improvements could boost the ranking, and what those changes would be. After that, you can plan your next update accordingly.
According to researchers, by 2025, three-quarters of internet users throughout the world will exclusively use their smartphones to access the internet. Use these pointers to improve the responsive design of your website and meet your visitors where they are.
Get A Responsive Web Design Quote
Responsive web design is the way of the future, and it comes with a slew of advantages that boost any company’s bottom line.