How Can You Make Sure That Your Website is Responsive?

If you want to get the most out of your website, having a responsive web design is extremely important. There are now a vast variety of devices available for users to access websites. Previously users could only access the internet via one machine in the early days of the internet-their personal computer.

Now, you can access a particular website on the internet from a variety of machines including mobile phones, tablets, computers, and other smart devices. As such, you want to make sure that you are designing your website in a way that is accessible to all.

What Happens If Your Website Is Not responsive?

The consequences of not paying attention to the responsiveness of your site are that you can easily increase bounce rate and make it harder for people to read and interact with your website.

By making your website as easy as possible to purchase your goods or services for people is a priority. To do that, you must design your website with the intent to cater to all possible devices. And you may want to hire web designers or a custom web design Christchurch or New Zealand agency that provides these assurances.

But, what does that really mean? We're going to dive into what exactly makes a responsive website, how you can prioritise responsiveness in your web design and things you should know when optimising for responsiveness.

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What Does it Mean to Have a Responsive Web Design and Web Designer?

In the first place, let's define exactly what a responsive website is. A responsive web design is one that resizes itself to fit the device that it's being used.

You will be able to see the same content no matter how someone views your website's pages on a phone, tablet, or computer. However, it will be arranged in a way that makes sense for that particular device.

On a computer, you might have three columns of content. But on a phone, it might only make sense to have one column of content on web pages so that users don't have to scroll horizontally.

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Why is it Important to Have a Responsive Website?

It is important to have responsive websites because they provide a better user experience. The information you provide on your website should be easy to find for visitors.

You should design a responsive website so that people can view it on any device, regardless of its type.

When you are getting ready to build a website for your business, be sure to spend just a few seconds asking your digital marketing company a few questions about what they do to ensure that your website will be shown on all devices and web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. You can greatly improve the responsiveness of your web page by doing this.

This is crucial because you want to make sure that everyone has the same opportunity to view your website and all of its content. Your website should be accessible to everyone if it has a responsive design.

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How Can You Make Sure That Your Website is Responsive?

There are a few things that you can do to make sure that your website is responsive and the website development process prioritises responsiveness. First, you want to use a responsive web design framework.

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Responsive Web design frameworks 

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Webflow 

There are a few different responsive web design frameworks that you can choose from, but we recommend Webflow as it has its own framework and makes designing responsive website an easy solution. The visual design tools in Webflow allow a web designer to adjust the content blocks and toggle between device views easily to ensure the design integrity is high across the views. 

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Bootstrap

There is also Bootstrap. Bootstrap is a popular framework that is used by many different websites. Many web designers will be able to understand Bootstrap and how to use it to design responsive web apps and web pages. They should provide you with a few examples to choose from.

Creating a responsive website will be easier with this tool. Once you have chosen a framework, you want to make sure that you're using responsive web design principles for your visual elements and graphic design.

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What Your Should Look for in a Framework

Principles include using fluid layouts, media queries, and breakpoints. By using these principles, you can be sure that your website will be responsive no matter what device or browser width it's being viewed on.

You also want to make sure that you're testing your website on all different types of devices. This includes phones, tablets, and computers.

You want to make sure that you're testings on a variety of different screen sizes so that you can be sure that your website looks good on all of them.

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Hiring Responsive Web Designers

If you want to enjoy all of the benefits of a responsive website, then you will want to hire a web designer that specialises in designing these websites. Most professional web designers will be able to help you out with a responsive website.

However, you should still have a conversation with the web designer that you hire to ensure that they will be able to build a website that features responsive design. Ask them to show you live sites that they have worked on to see how each translate on to multiple devices. 

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Things to Keep in Mind When Optimising for Web Page Responsiveness

There are a few things that you want to keep in mind when you're optimising your website for responsiveness.

1. The first thing you need to do is make sure your website loads quickly. Your website shouldn't take too long to load, especially if someone is using a mobile device.
2. It is also important that your website is easy to navigate. Your website should be easy to navigate and easy to find the information people are looking for.
3. Finally, make sure that your website looks good on all devices. Your website should be mobile-friendly as well. 

By keeping these things in mind, you can be sure that your responsive website is the best it can be.

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Benefits of a Responsive Website

Here are some details about the benefits of having a website that is responsive and adaptable to all types of devices.

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Easy to Manage Web Pages

A responsive website is easy to manage because you only need one website. You don't need separate mobile or desktop websites. In the long run, you can save time and money.

When you start to create multiple websites, that's where the time and money savings really comes in. Imagine having to constantly alter or update two versions of the same website all the time!

Make sure you have a responsive website instead of dealing with all of that. Later on, it will save you some headaches!

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Rank Higher in the Search Engines

It is actually possible to boost your website's ranking on Google by having a responsive website. Any website or small business owner knows the importance of gaining ground in search engine rankings.

Google has stated that they prefer websites that are responsive over those that aren't. Google has issued clear signals that they are prioritising this. The absence of a responsive website can lead to big problems for your online presence.

Optimising your site for SEO can pay huge dividends and could steer the direction of your business for years to come. So, this should obviously be prioritised as much as possible.

So, if you're looking to improve your SEO, having a responsive website is a good place to start. This means working with web designers or a web designer individual that can create web pages that represent good responsive web design while also paying attention to factors that influence SEO.

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Better User Interface Design & Experience

The user experience is better with responsive websites. Users will be able to easily navigate your website and find what they're looking for, regardless of their device.

The user experience on mobile websites is often poor, as they can be difficult to navigate.

This can obviously lead to a lot of frustration for users, which is something you want to avoid at all costs. If people can't easily use your website, they're likely to just give up and go somewhere else.

By having a responsive website, you can be sure that people will have a good experience using your website no matter what device they are on.

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Increased Traffic

By having a responsive website, you can actually increase the amount of quality traffic that your website gets. This is because users are more likely to visit and stay on a website that is responsive and easy to use.

On the other hand, if your website isn't responsive, users are likely to leave as soon as they arrive. This obviously isn't good for business or your bounce rate. 

So, if you're looking to increase the amount of website traffic that your website gets, make sure that it is responsive. You'll be glad you did!

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Long-Term Cost-Effectiveness

A responsive website is a long-term investment that will save you money in the long run. It can be more expensive to get a responsive website created in the first place. 

However business decisions should be based on the long-term, in the long run, investing in a responsive website pays off. As it means less time maintaining and an increase in customer satisfaction with your site reducing user frustration. 

Think about it this way, would you rather spend a little more money up front to have a website that will last for years and is easy to maintain? Or would you rather cut corners and have to rebuild your website every few years?

The decision is clear. A responsive website is a way to go if you want a long-term solution that is cost-effective.

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Scalability

Your website grows as your business does. With a responsive website, you won't have to worry about whether or not your website can handle an increase in traffic.

A responsive website is built to scale as your business grows. This means that it will be able to handle any increase in traffic that comes its way.

On the other hand, if you have a website that isn't responsive, you could run into some serious problems if you get a sudden influx of traffic. Your website could crash and become unusable.

This obviously isn't ideal and could cost you a lot of business. So, it's important to make sure that your website is responsive and can handle any increase in traffic. Hire a website builder that has the web design tools like Webflow to make your site responsive and scalable from the beginning. 

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Key Takeaways

There are many benefits of having a responsive website. Some of the most important benefits include:

1. Google prefers responsive websites

2. Increased traffic

3. Better user experience

4. Long-term cost-effectiveness

5. Scalability

It's important to have a responsive website if you want to improve your SEO. Responsive websites are also long-term investments that save you money over time. Small business owners should absolutely make it a priority. So, if you're looking to create a website or a website builder for your business, make sure that it is responsive. You'll be glad you did!

Get in touch with us, so we can show you how easy it is to be responsive. 

View our recent projects and learn more about the great work we've done, from building Malcolm Pacific Immigration's Webflow site to SEO marketing strategies for Hunter Construction.