Over the course of just a few years, the way that many people get online and use the Internet has changed a lot. While plenty of people still use laptops and desktops, more people than ever before are spending the majority of their time online using a phone or tablet. Since there are so many different devices used to get online, Omaha businesses need to ensure that their website is going to look great and be functional on any size of screen.
Prior to the arrival of the iPhone, it was possible to access websites from certain mobile phones. However, instead of providing access to the full websites, mobile phones in this category provided access to stripped down versions of websites. Because screens were tiny and mobile data connections were slow, many businesses and online entities created mobile versions of their websites.
The idea of mobile websites was good. Unfortunately, the execution usually fell short of expectations. From not being able to access desired pages to lacking important information, the experience provided by most mobile websites was less than ideal. Add to that the need to maintain multiple codebases and the rise of mobile Internet access, and it’s easy to see why the idea of a separate mobile site simply doesn’t make sense in the current online landscape.
Responsive Web Design is the Solution for All Screen Sizes
Although mobile sites are no longer a viable solution, there is a way to ensure that a website looks great and functions correctly on a screen of any size. Not only is this solution reliable, but it only requires maintaining one codebase. That means whenever you want to change something about your business website, there’s only one file that needs to be changed instead of multiple ones.
The solution to ensuring visitors can access and navigate your Omaha business website from any device is responsive web design. With this type of web design, advanced CSS styling is used in a way that allows a website to detect the size of screen it’s being loaded on and then adapt accordingly. In non-technical terms, responsive design ensures that it’s just as easy to read and browse a site on a 5” phone screen as it is on a 22” desktop monitor.
5 Reasons Every Omaha Business Need a Responsive Website Design
There are quite a few reasons why the majority of modern web design uses the responsive strategy. The first reason is it’s the most effective way to have a single design that works well across all devices and screen sizes. Since many websites get more than of half their traffic from devices other than laptops and desktops, the importance of this adaptability can’t be emphasized enough.
The second reason your business should have a responsive website is because this type of design can help with search engine optimization. With so many people using their phones to get online, this pushed for Google to release an algorithm update to their mobile results. This update provides a boost to sites that are properly optimized for mobile. Not surprisingly, responsive design is the specific strategy that Google endorses for mobile optimization.
Another benefit of responsive design is it can decrease your mobile bounce rate. In case you’re not familiar with that term, bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave your site without looking at more than one page. A lower bounce rate means visitors are much more engaged with your business. Since bounce rates are often higher on mobile devices, a responsive design can help remedy this issue.
Fourth, this type of design can also increase mobile conversions. This is related to responsive design decreasing a site’s mobile bounce rate. With responsive design making it easier for visitors to use a site on a smaller device, there’s a higher chance the website visitors will become a qualified lead or customer. Last but not least is the ease of maintenance that goes along with responsive design. Whenever a change needs to be made, it can be handled much faster thanks to only needing to edit one file.
What It Takes to Create a Responsive Website
As mentioned earlier in this post, responsive designs are created through the use of advanced CSS styling. CSS stands for cascading style sheets. When combined with HTML (hypertext markup language), these two technologies form the basis of a website’s structure and look. In addition to controlling everything from the color of text to the width of columns, CSS can be used to give a website responsive capabilities.
When an Omaha business comes to Big Red SEO in search of a responsive website design, they’re in one of two positions. The first position is not having a website at all. For clients in this category, we go through the full process of planning and designing a great responsive website that has everything the business needs.
The other possibility is when a business comes to us with an existing website that isn’t responsive. In this scenario, we can take what they like about the current website, make all requested updates and changes, as well as convert the new design to one that’s responsive. For clients in this category, the outcome is generally a huge boost to their performance on mobile devices!
Big Red SEO Can Create the Ideal Responsive Design for Your Business: (402) 522-6468
Whether your business has a website that isn’t responsive or you need a completely new website, Big Red SEO can help. Because we specialize in creating responsive business websites, you can count on the website we build for you to look great and provide everything that’s needed to help your business grow.
If you’d like to speak with us in detail about your Omaha business and what you want from your new responsive website, be sure to give us a call at (402) 522-6468.