Responsive Web Design Continues to be Popular… But is it Right for Your Website?
Responsive web design is quite the trend right now. Responsive web design is when a website automatically adjusts how it displays based on the screen size of the device viewing the website. Which makes it perfect for taking one single website, and making it display on desktops, tablets, and mobile phones (in landscape or portrait mode).
According to a survey done by Pew Internet about 85% of Americans own a cell phone (that’s around 264,853,129 people!). Of those people, 56% use the mobile device to access the Internet (that’s around 148,317,752 people).
The trend and popularity is well deserved. Responsive web design is a significant evolution in website design.
But is responsive website design all it’s hyped up to be? Let’s take a look at the pro’s and con’s of responsive web design.
The Pro’s of Responsive Web Design
Everyday, more and more tablets and mobile devices go online. People are browsing the Internet from a wide-variety of screen sizes and dimensions. Your website will be no exception. However, everyday people are becoming less and less patient with websites that don’t function properly from their mobile device.
Here are a few pro’s of mobile web design:
- Makes your website easily accessible by all Internet browsers
- Provides a consistent experience across all devices
- Only one single website is maintained (cost reduction)
- After the initial setup, the website remains responsive even when new content is added
- It utilizes the most modern and up to date web programming standards
- Some SEO improvements might be seen
Essentially, the biggest benefit of responsive web design is that you’ll never be turning anyone away. Meaning you’ll have greater opportunity to engage and attract new customers.
The Con’s of Responsive Web Design
Nothing is perfect. There are a few things to consider before diving into responsive web design. Here are a few of the con’s to responsive web design:
- It takes longer to initially setup and will certainly add to development costs
- Video, 3rd party code, banners, and ad slots can sometimes pose special challenges
- Testing changes to the website gets very complex
- People adding new content will have to stick to stricter protocols
The largest downfall of responsive design is just considering all of the options every time something new is added to the website. It can lead to unknown development costs down the road.
Conclusion
Overall, responsive web design is a great solution to the influx of mobile browsers. Mobile browsers are here to stay. It’s just a matter of when your business is able to tackle this change. There is an associated cost with going down the road of responsive website design. There’s also an associated cost of losing customers and clients because they couldn’t engage with you the way they wanted.
When you’re ready to start building a responsive website, consider devEdge Internet Marketing for developing your mobile website. Fill out the form on this page and we’ll discuss your needs.
Do you already have a responsive website? What pro’s and con’s did you experience in developing your website?
