In the early days of web design and development, the web pages were limited to a particular screen size. But, as we move to a range of diverse screen sizes, the concept of responsive web design has changed over the years.
According to a website, people spend, on average, 3.3 hours a day engaging with digital media on their smartphones. This shift in the consumer behavior has led to the website design be responsive enough so that it not only works on a desktop computer.
What Is Responsive Web Design & How Does It Work
Responsive web design is a set of practices that allows web pages to alter their layouts and appearances to automatically adjust in different sized screens. With the help of such designs, your website can be browsed from any device. This includes a mix of flexible grids and layouts and intelligent use of images and CSS media queries.
Now, you might ask, ‘How can I check if my website is responsive?’
You can easily check it from your web browser
- Open Google Chrome
- Go to your website
- Press Ctrl + Shift + I to open Chrome DevTools
- Press Ctrl + Shift + M to toggle the device toolbar
- View your page from a mobile, tablet, or desktop perspective
You can also try out a free tool, like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and check if your web pages are mobile-friendly.
Also Read: Link Building In SEO: A Beginner’s Guide
Why Responsive Web Design Matters?
Web designers work day and night to create websites, and if it’s not responsive, it’s of no use at the end of the day. Therefore, responsive web design ensures that the website is accessible on all devices and it also makes it easier for the business owners, marketers etc. to use the website in an effective way.
Some other benefits include:
- A responsive website provides one site for every device. Whether, you access the website from an iMac or an Android phone, the website will offer you the same viewing pleasure
- It also gives you an optimal design for the device, which means all images, fonts and other HTML elements will be scaled appropriately, irrespective of the user’s screen sizes
- Another important benefit is that there will be no need for redirects. This will allow the users to access content faster.
Responsive Web Design & SEO
Today, the society has adapted a mobile-centric attitude, resulting in a lot more work for SEO professionals. Web designers and SEO professionals invest in a lot more time, effort and energy to build a website with a responsive web design.
It optimize websites for mobile search, improve your site’s functionality, allow for a faster web page loading with a lower bounce rate. It can also boost your social sharing by making your content accessible across all social platforms.
Takeaway
Now that you know the importance of a responsive web design, try to incorporate it in your website planning. This will help you to picture how your website will look like, identify the purpose of your website and to analyze its functionality as well.
