For a long time, responsive web design has been a popular choice. When you combine that with the rising use of mobile devices with varied screen sizes, it’s simple to see why the Internet can’t get enough of it.

But, for small business owners, what does responsive web design imply? What’s more, why should you be concerned about responsive web design?

A well-designed website might be your most important asset when it comes to advertising and marketing your business. However, an appealing design isn’t enough if you want it to be truly effective. Your website must also be mobile-friendly.

The major reason you’d want a responsive website is that the number of people using mobile devices to access the Internet has been steadily increasing for several years and shows no signs of slowing down.

In terms of business, this means that if your website doesn’t respond well to smaller displays and is difficult to read and navigate, visitors will be more likely to go to a competitor’s site instead.

Simply said, responsive web design isn’t a luxury; it’s a requirement, and now is the ideal moment to ensure your site is responsive.

What Is Responsive Web Design, and How Does It Work?

Ethan Marcotte coined the term “responsive web design” in 2010 to describe the process of creating websites that adapt to the device they’re being viewed on in order to provide users with a seamless, ideal experience.

Fluid grids, responsive media, and media queries are the three primary ideas of responsive web design. When a device can’t detect the initial width or scale of a website, which prevents media queries from triggering, responsive web design uses the media viewport meta element. The following are the basic principles of responsive web design:

1. Fluid Grids

Fluid grids function similarly to other design grids in that they allow you to visually arrange things on a page. Because it employs relative units of measurement such as percentages or em units instead of fixed units such as pixels, a fluid grid, unlike a regular grid, will resize dependent on the screen size and can adapt to any width.

2. Media Queries

You can go even more specific with your responsive design by using media queries to modify it for certain screen sizes. Websites use media queries to gather the information that allows them to determine the size of a screen and then load the relevant CSS styles.

3. Responsive Media

Responsive or adaptable media is the third basic principle of responsive web design. Given the prevalence of photos, videos, and other media files on current websites, it’s critical that these sorts of content adapt to multiple screen sizes.

4. Viewport Meta Tag

As previously stated, the viewport meta tag is used when media queries fail to fire due to a device’s inability to detect the starting width of a webpage. Apple created the viewport meta tag to combat this.

The initial scale of the height or width value in the viewport meta tag is commonly set to 1, which overcomes the problem of the website’s scale not being recognized by using the ratio between the device height or width and the viewport size.

Why Does Your Business Website Need Responsive Web Design?

It’s not only about following the newest web design trends when it comes to responsive web design. Adopting a responsive design for your website provides numerous advantages for your company, including increased traffic, SEO, and revenue. The following are the top five reasons to use responsive web design for your website.

1. Better User Experience and Website Usability

The most essential reason to employ a responsive web design is that it will increase the usability of your website and provide a better user experience for your visitors. Visitors will be more likely to stay on your website for a longer period of time if they aren’t compelled to scroll in all directions, pinch, and zoom in to read your information. They’ll be able to easily navigate from one page to the next, fill out forms, and click your call-to-action button without difficulty.

2. More Mobile Visitors

As we mentioned earlier, statistics show that more than half of all world web traffic comes from mobile devices, which means that once your website is responsive, you’ve got much better chances of attracting those visitors. If they land on your website and are met with a website that looks and works great even on smaller screens, they’ll have no reason to navigate away so your business is bound to see an increase in leads and customers from mobile devices.

3. Faster Website

In addition to responsive page design, another web trend that has made it mandatory is a fast-loading website. And thanks to responsive grids and responsive media, responsive websites load faster than non-responsive websites. This makes visitors spend more time on your site, which takes us to a higher conversion rate.

4. Improved Conversion Rates

You’ll have a better chance of turning visitors into leads, and than into subscribers and purchases, if they spend longer time on your website. According to studies, typical conversion rates for smartphone devices are 64 percent higher than conversion rates for desktop computers. This is a direct result of improved user experience that comes from having a website that is easy to use across various screen sizes and faster loading times.

5. Better SEO Rank

Finally, one of the top five advantages of responsive site design is a higher SEO ranking. After all, generating organic traffic to your website will be practically difficult if you can’t be found in search engines. Since April 2015, the responsiveness of your website has been one of the ranking signals that determine how your website is displayed in search engines, according to Google. It isn’t the only search engine that recommends it, though. Building websites that are optimized for all platforms is critical to a successful SEO strategy, according to Bing’s blog.