Panama City Website Design: What is Responsive Design and Why Does It Matter?

Simply put, a responsive website automatically adjusts itself to fit on any screen, whether laptop, tablet, or phone, without losing important functionality. This has become an increasingly important issue since the advent of smartphones and tablets; with so many screen sizes, your website must be nimble enough to adjust.

Note: responsive design is not the same thing as a miniature version of your website on a smaller device (you shouldn’t have to scroll around or zoom in on a smaller screen). It is not even a mobile version of your site. Responsive design allows you to build only one site that is smart enough to recognize the device on which it is displaying and shuffle and resize important design elements to ensure users have a great experience no matter what.

One number – 46% That is the share of searchers who now use mobile devices exclusively to search, according to a 2013 study. That number doesn’t include people who sometimes or most times use mobile devices for search. In other words, if your site does not perform well on mobile devices (including tablets), you are missing a huge segment of your target market. And if one of your targets is younger people, forget about it.

If your existing site is not responsive, there is no magic internet button you can push to make it so. And depending on the age of your site, it may not be possible at all. I try to be careful about when I recommend total site remakes, but this is one where it is definitely worth the money to have a pro web design firm do it right for you. I’m not saying you need a total redesign, but I am saying that if you do, don’t hesitate. It is a sound investment. Just consider how much potential traffic, and customers, you are losing because they can’t use your site on their iPhone or Kindle Fire, and it is not hard to run the math.

So that is responsive website design in a nutshell. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us anytime. We’d be glad to review your site and give you some options. If you would like to go ahead and start a new website project, please complete this quick quote form, and we’ll get back to you right away.

Thanks for reading.