Why Should I Design My Website To Be Responsive?

For the last few years, whether I’ve been working for an advertising agency or now at BeBizzy Consulting, the main question is, “why do I need in a new website?”

The answers are numerous, but one stands out above all the rest… your site needs to be responsive.

The arguments to spend the money on responsive design are many, including:

• Smartphones are present in 84% of US households, and over 60% of internet traffic is performed by mobile devices. Your site needs to be viewed on these devices with a positive experience.
• The smartphone is the new phone book. Every year we get a phone book delivered, but how many times do you look contact information up on your smartphone instead of dusting off a large, alphabetical listing? Responsive sites provide an easy way to get your contact information front and center on your page even to mobile users.
• If B2B, more millenials are doing research on your companies and using mobile devices.
• Huge difference in computer sizes. I use two 23″ monitors, some use a single 27″, and then there’s the mobile guy who uses a 12″ laptop. All need a similar experience.
• Does your competition have a responsive site yet? If they do, they are getting leads from mobile users. If they do not, YOU can get a jump on them and get more leads.
• If you are doing any sort of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it’s much easier to optimize for one site than for two. Send everyone to the same page for the same information and focus marketing dollars instead of splitting and spending extra money to reach both audiences.
• Google, who owns nearly 70% of the search market, states that responsive web design is an industry best practice.
• And finally, nearly 75% of consumers bring their smartphone to the bathroom. Talk about a captive audience.

So on to the next question. How much will this cost?

Not as much as you would think, with BeBizzy Consulting anyways. All of our development is built on the WordPress CRM system. The code is installed in our shared server environment, backed up nightly, secured and kept updated by some great software, and is incredibly easy to navigate and edit. Best of all, the themes we purchase and use are all responsive and have been tested on many devices across many browsers to ensure your potential clients are getting to you regardless of which device is used.

So what’s the next step? Well, contacting us would be the best, easiest next step towards determining if you need to complete the migration to a responsive site. There are definitely a few more items to be concerned about like current SEO efforts and other special coding that may exist. If you want to do some checking for yourself I would suggest making a list of competitors or businesses similar in other areas and checking their websites. If you’re seeing others already configured for responsive, you’re already behind. If not, it’s a chance to jump out front and potentially capture some market share.

Responsive web design is not new, nor will it be going anywhere soon. Designing a site that’s capable to be displayed on virtually any device and display similar information is huge in minimizing the cost of multiple SEO campaigns and managing several versions of one site. Contact BeBizzy Consulting and let’s see how we can move you towards that mobile-friendly website. You decide what you want on the site, then leave the technical stuff to us.