Attention Small Businesses: How Responsive Is Your Website?

Mobile devices have become an extension of almost every person’s hand. Recent reports say that in 2019, the amount of time an average person spent on their phone was up to 203 minutes per day — a huge leap from 2013’s record of 88 minutes per day.

As mobile devices become more integrated into your customers’ lives, now is the time to evaluate how your small business’s website displays on smartphones, tablets, and even computers. Also, check if your website is easy to navigate on any of these platforms.

If there are challenges, it’s time to invest in responsive web design.

What Is a Responsive Website Design?

Providers of website design services describe ‘responsive web design’ as a website optimized for display on different types of gadgets, resolutions, and screens. The design adapts to the viewing space of a user without them needing to zoom-in, zoom-out, or scroll left to right constantly to read the text or view an image.

Also, a responsive website design eliminates the need to create a second site for mobile devices. Instead of designing multiple websites for different resolutions and screen sizes, you can use one website design that scales up and down automatically to match the device your customer uses.

A design is unresponsive if your website looks the same on your phone as it does on your computer (but a smaller version). With responsive website design, users can easily read and navigate your site and interact with you on any device of their choice.

As more people use mobile devices to access the Internet, small businesses must have a responsive website. Consider the following reasons.

A Growing Number of Mobile Users

As mentioned, mobile devices have become an extension of almost everyone’s hands. Due to the growing use of mobile phones, it’s critical to make a website with mobile traffic in mind. Since many people are using the Internet to buy or communicate, small business owners should make sure their sites look and function well on phones and tablets as they do on laptop and desktop computers.

With the growing competition online, you can’t afford to lose potential customers due to broken displays or slow-loading pages.

Attract More Mobile Shoppers

Online shopping has grown over the years, especially with the stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. As technology and security mature, customers are becoming more confident with shopping online. Mobile shopping has contributed a large portion of sales and will most likely continue to grow for a long time.

A responsive website can close a sale in less than a minute. If your site is easy to navigate and enables customers to check out their purchases quickly, they will likely buy again. On the other hand, if your website lags and takes a while to load, customers will leave your site and find another shop.

Higher Conversion Rates

Building a continuous positive user experience throughout all devices is a crucial key to converting curious visitors into loyal customers. When website visitors decide to subscribe to your services, they don’t want to be forwarded to a device-centric website. Instead, they want to get what they want as soon as possible. Convert them into your customers with a site that leads them to the services or products they want ASAP.

Better SEO Rankings

Google (and other major search engines) prefer mobile-friendly websites when it comes to displaying sites on the search engine results pages (SERPs). If your website ranked well before but did not pass Google’s standards for responsiveness, you can lose your rankings. You could also get penalized for not being responsive, which can cost you your organic traffic.

If you are a small business owner and wish to rank well on the SERPs, prioritize having a responsive web design. If you can’t do it yourself, you can hire an SEO expert to repair broken links, improve your content, or improve the technical aspects of your SEO.

Fewer Maintenance Requirements

Maintaining two different websites for desktop and mobile requires additional separate testing and support. The procedure for responsive web design uses identical testing procedures to ensure that your website displays well on all screen sizes.

Since you’ll need to maintain one site for multiple gadgets, you’ll experience fewer headaches and spare your customers from more website problems. To reduce time consumed on website building, partner with a trusted web developer and leave the maintenance to them.

Prepared for the Future

Mobile is the future of the web. By investing in a responsive web design today, you’re preparing your business for the influx of users visiting your website using their smartphones. Better to be ready today than to be scrambling to upgrade your website and losing customers in the process.

The Cost Benefits of Investing in Responsive Web Design

Some small business owners are hesitant to upgrade or design a new website because of the website cost “It’s expensive!” or “Isn’t it time-consuming?” Initially, when you look for web design services to build your website can be costly. But think about it: your website will do the selling on your behalf 24/7. If your responsive website attracts more visitors and converts them into loyal customers, you can expect higher returns on your investment.

Also, there are many less expensive options for small business owners who wish to invest in responsive websites. Local designers and web agencies offer flexible payment plans. Consult with your chosen web designers to work on a plan that suits your budget.

The Bottom Line

Responsive design is a must-have for all types of websites and all business sizes — including your business. Whether you are promoting your services, selling products online, or running ads, a responsive design can help direct more traffic to your website and earn more conversions and sales. You can make almost all your websites responsive — you just need help from a trusted web design company.