Not too long ago many business owners did not put much thought into the design of their website. However, over the last 10 years, a lot has changed in the way that consumers interact with businesses online leading to a demand for a well built responsive website.
This new age is more technical than ever and consumers not only prefer but also rely on online services to conduct their business whether it is paying a bill, looking up information, or shopping for products or services.
Take that demand and add in the advancement in mobile technology and you have a majority population of consumers who use their mobile phones and tablets to conduct most of their online activity.
What is a responsive website?
A responsive website is a website that is capable of detecting the device a person is using to adjust itself to the best possible layout and resolution. In most cases, this is done by containing text, menus, and buttons within the restraints of the device’s screen while in other cases, an “app version” of the website will be built completely separate from the standard “desktop version”.
App versions of websites are normally built by leaving out a substantial amount of less important information. While this may be a good course of action for some simple websites, you may be needlessly sacrificing some of your website’s features and information to achieve this. That is where responsive website design comes in handy.
By designing your website to be responsive, you can ensure that your customers are getting all the information and features available on your site without the need to design multiple versions. With a responsive design, you only need to create one website design to be used on all devices such as desktops, netbooks, tablets, and mobile phones.
Is a responsive design really necessary?
Yes and no. In the end, it is up to you as a business owner and website owner to decide how you want your website to look. However, with the ever-growing popularity of social media and social media marketing, business owners are seeing up to 90% of their website traffic coming from mobile devices.
In recent surveys, consumers reported that they are more likely to leave a website and continue searching for another site to fulfill their needs if the website is too hard to navigate.
Without having a responsive web design, consumers are forced to scroll in all directions to be able to view your whole site on small screens, and in some cases, some website components do not even appear.
A responsive design will give your visitors a clean, fluid site to navigate in one direction with easy access to all menu items and pages.
Is it hard or costly to design a responsive website?
Not at all. Since most websites see an average of 70-90% of their traffic coming from mobile devices, responsive web designs have become almost regular in the industry.
Modern web designers are already using a new web language called HTML5 which makes the design responsive. Also, websites that are built using a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and others, are already seeing an increase in themes that are responsive as well.
As far as cost, most designers do not charge extra to make a website responsive. The price of your website design will almost always be based on how detailed and intricate your site will be as well as how many features it will offer and how many hours of labor will be poured into the development.
What happens if I have a site already?
If you already have a site and it is not responsive, you can still have it redesigned to be responsive. Most web designers offer redesign packages for businesses with existing sites.
The process is similar to building a new site from scratch except most of the information needed for the site’s content is already available to the designer.
In most cases, a redesign can be done without affecting your current site until the new design is launched minimizing any of your site’s downtime.
How can I start?
Getting started is the easiest step. The Graphic Geek offers web design services with affordable competitive pricing to help you get your site online with a responsive design right away. You can also shop around and check other web designers in your area to find the one you feel more comfortable with or that is the best fit for your needs and budget.
With our price matching, we can match most prices from any company.
Ready to start? Contact us today to schedule a FREE consultation with one of our designers and get the ball rolling!