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Health & Fitness

What is Responsive Web Design and Is My Website Responsive?

As owners of Gallop Web Services, http://www.gallopwebservices.com an award winning web design company located in Loudoun County, it is our number one priority to help you meet your Internet marketing goals and objectives. Our services are designed to drive more traffic to your site, period.  We are happy to be bringing to you Part 2 of our 6-part Blog Series about some of the most important topics related to your web presence. 

 

Why is it important to have a Responsive Web Design?

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You’ve probably heard the catch phrase, Responsive Web Design, but what does it really mean?  In general, Responsive Web Design is about using a set of techniques to present website content to the viewer based on his or her device of choice.  When your potential clients try to access your site from their smart phones, how does your site appear on the smaller screen?  To test if a site is “responsive”, adjust the browser screen width on your desktop and using your mouse manually resize the screen to see the site layout adjust itself to fit to the new width.  If the website layout does not adjust to a smaller, vertical size then it is “fixed width” and therefore less flexible across multiple device uses.  If you have various devices, take a look at our site at Gallop Web Services www.gallopwebservices.com to see how it adapts to different device uses.

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The following mobile usage statistics are staggering and should make everyone who operates a website take notice:

•   56% of people who own cell phones use their phone to go online

•   50% of smart phone owners use their phones for social media everyday

•   34% of mobile website users would visit a competitor’s mobile site, if they had a bad mobile experience with a business

•   30% use their phone to decide whether to visit a local business, such as a restaurant or retail store

 

For most businesses, an ideal website should be responsive to desktop computers, tablets and smart phones. When planning the design or redesign of your website, however, you need to consider if you want to target a mobile audience. If so, what do you want to convey to them through mobile?

 

What are users accessing on their mobile devices?

 

The following are the top activities on Smartphones:

 

•   Access local information (maps, directions)

•   Search for general information

•   Participate in social media

•   Research news and entertainment

•   Find local services such as restaurants or shops

 

Since over half of cell phone users go online with their mobile devices, many businesses (especially local storefronts and restaurants) absolutely benefit from a mobile site. To avoid frustrating your audience, consider the following.

 

•      Keep branding elements (logo, colors, etc.) consistent with the

      desktop website version

 

•      Simplify navigation, so it is easy to understand and select options from a smaller screen

 

•      Be thumb friendly–easy to click with little typing needed

 

•      Give an option to view the full website version

 

•      Use white space and minimal text for better viewing

 

•      Clearly show contact information, directions and maps and allow

      users the option of being able to link directly to a telephone number

      to make a call to your establishment

 

If you think you need to have your website accessible by phone, then consider the design, target audience and goals.  Analytic tracking of mobile activity is a must and should be implemented to gauge the value of the mobile site. Otherwise, how will you know if your efforts have delivered a good return on your investment?  At Gallop Web Services we can do that for you be setting up tracking tools and giving you real time data.

We hope you have enjoyed our second blog in the series.  Look for our next Blog during the last week of October when we will focus on the importance of knowing your target audience and ways to reach them online.  And don’t forget that if you have immediate questions about your own company’s web presence, we would love to sit down and talk http://www.gallopwebmarketing.com/contact-us-for-a-free-website-audit/

Statistical data from Pew Internet

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