If you are in the business of designing and creating websites, or if you have a particular interest in how websites work, or even if you have your own website, you have probably heard of the term “mobile responsive”.
Simply, this just means that how a website renders and displays will be different according to the size of the screen it is being viewed on. For example a website being viewed on a mobile device might display scaled down images and video, have a larger font display, convert the navigation into a drop-down format, and display easy to tap link areas.
Having a mobile responsive website means that a visitor will have easy to navigate, read, view, and tap access, no matter what device they are accessing your website on. Considering that more than half of all web traffic is now originating on a mobile device this is a necessary function.
Not only is this vitally important for your web visitor, but it is now an important ranking factor that Google use to determine where your site appears in their search result. During April 2015 Google announced that mobile responsivieness will be an important ranking factor in their search algorithm.
The fact is responsive design in a must these days if you want your site to show up well in all manner of mediums, particularly mobile. And this is good, as more than half of all Web traffic is now originating on a mobile device of some kind, it’s high time to make certain your pages are rendering well.
That said, let’s take a look at 5 tips you’ll want to make sure you address when implementing responsive design.
5 Tips for Implementing Responsive Design
Make a plan – Real no-brainer there, but you’d be surprised at how many times specific plans are not made, leading to far more cost and time wasted than need be. You have to be able to communicate your needs to the developer clearly, and doing so will require some work on your part.
Visual content – Images and videos should be carefully considered when deploying them in your responsive design. First, having too many causes your pages to load slowly which results in bounces, lost visitors and revenue. Not what we want, right? Make sure you size everything consistently and properly for small devices, and test them once done for distortion and load times.
Write content for mobile – One of the last things people want to do on a small screen is scroll through a mountain of text. Your mobile content should be more to the point, perhaps bulleted, and even possibly lead to the full version on the main website.
Don’t forget your calls to action! – One important item that often gets overlooked is the relative size and visibility of your calls to action on a smaller screen. Too small, they miss it, perhaps find the button too small to easily click. Too big and it becomes pushy. Test this and make sure you would find it acceptable as a user.
Aim for a clean design – Having massive, endlessly scrolling mobile pages that take ages to load while all your favorite photos load is a recipe for site bounce. Mobile users expect your pages to load quickly and be wonderful. Don’t disappoint!
Mobile responsiveness isn’t a trend, or a gimmick, or even a “quaint” addition to your website. Rather it is a necessary design consideration and vital not only for the comfort and ease of access for your mobile device visitors, but also is an important ranking factor for the search engines. No question about it, a successful website will need to be mobile responsive.
