What is responsive design and why is it important

Nowadays people prefer to browse the internet on mobile phones, smart phones, tablets or mini laptops. They prefer to use convenient electronic devices that are easy to handle and carry from one place to another. earlier checking social media profiles, applications, specific websites or just browsing the internet from smart phones or tablets was not easy. The layout of most websites did not match the screen size, making them difficult to navigate. However, the advancements in technology allowed the creation of new methods to enable ease of use. A website with a responsive web design will always adapt to the screen, regardless of the device. These websites offer the best user experience by reformatting themselves according to the device that is used to browse it. ‘Responsive design’ is the next big thing in the web design domain. It will make your website device friendly and improve the way it looks not only on small but on large screens as well.

What is responsive design?

A responsive design website is developed in a way where the content, images and the structure of the website adjusts for optimal viewing on any device. This type of design automatically scales the content and other elements to match the screen size of the device that is used to view it. It allows the layout of the overall site to change with respect to the screen size. For example, when a user accesses a site on their desktop, they get a full view of the website. But when the user visits the same site using a smartphone or a tablet, the site will retract to fit on the small screen.

The ultimate goal of responsive design is to get rid of unnecessary scrolling, resizing, zooming or any panning that would happen when visiting websites that have not been optimized for different devices. It is very difficult to browse these kinds of websites on devices with smaller screens. Businesses may even lose potential consumers, as they become frustrated trying to figure out how to do something on these websites.

Instead of developing different websites for different screen sizes, one can design a single responsive design website that scales up and down automatically to match the device that is used to view it.

Why is responsive design important?

The reasons that make responsive design important are as follows –

Ideal for multi device users

We live in a world where websites are viewed on different devices. In this busy world, people find it easy to browse through a website while they travel or when they are sipping a cup of coffee. Retrieving information using smartphones or laptops is quite easy and also seamless at the same time. Sometimes a user has to leave a website abruptly only to come back later. Also users can return to the same website from any other device at some other time. So modern websites need to work well at any time regardless of the device they are viewed on. If a user visits your website for particular information and they return later using a different device looking for the same piece of information, they should not fail to locate it. The consistency of information must exist regardless of the device the visitor uses. There comes the need for responsive design, as it ensures the consistency of information irrespective of any device. So users can check the same website from a tablet and later check the same content from their smartphones. A website with responsive web design will help the user retrieve required information, shop online or simply browse without a hassle.

Improve search engine rankings

It has been a long time since Google recommended using responsive web design to support different devices and screen sizes. This recommendation went a step further when the search engine started adding a “Mobile friendly” label to those websites that used this approach. The labels appeared on the search results page on any mobile device. From April 2015, Google began rewarding those sites that have been developed responsively for multi-device support. By rewarding mobile friendly sites, it is evident that responsive web design is an important criterion in SEO. So for websites to rank better in search engine results, it is important that websites be designed based on the responsive web design approach.

Increase in lead generation, sales and conversions for businesses

Apart from search engine benefits, responsive design is an important factor for generating leads and increasing sales and conversions. Users feel more comfortable when they shop online or purchase a product from their tablet rather than after browsing the website on a desktop. Responsive web design makes it easy for consumers to shop online for products they desire. Users can easily find a product online when they search for them using a smartphone. They can also retrieve information easily from devices like smartphones and tablets. Surveys and studies have revealed that responsive design websites are an important factor for increasing conversion rates for a brand. There has been a research that found out that 69% of users have shopped on their mobile device during the last 30 days. People find it more convenient to purchase any product using their smartphones or tablets rather than being forced to use a desktop. Even enquiring about a particular product or service is easy with the help of small, easy to handle electronic devices. So websites built responsively aid to better navigation and thus increase sales and conversion rate.

One site to maintain

It is very difficult to maintain different websites for different devices. Updating more than one site, managing content and maintaining the sites is a hectic task. Firstly, a multiplication of the workload is needed to maintain several sites for the same brand, at the same time. Also running SEO campaigns for more than one site is really hectic and costly. This requires that a business hire more people who would be dedicated only to updating the websites and also manage the content. Secondly websites for small screen devices will have a subset of the original content and feature. So this can be different from the feature and content of the “normal version” of the site. This may frustrate multi-device users who expect to access the same information across all their devices. So as a result they will abandon the site abruptly and never bother to visit the site again. Having one responsive site to maintain rather than multiple versions of the same site is much easier. The cost involved for a responsive site is also less as compared to the expenditure involved in maintaining more than one sites. A good responsive design company will help you get a site that runs well across all the devices and that is easy to maintain. So everything is stored in one single place for easy maintenance.

Seamless user experience

Websites that do not have a responsive web design are difficult to navigate on small screens. Be it tablet or smartphone, the text appears all jumbled up, images are not aligned and users find it difficult to get the required information after scrolling through endless pages. It is really painful and also hectic to find the required information after so much of scrolling. A website aligned to responsive web design will provide consumers with a better user experience. There is no need to zoom and shrink the text or images on the screen. The content automatically adjusts to the screen of the device. When a user receives a seamless experience, the user will come back to the website again. So the website traffic increases to a great extent. This is something good for brands looking forward to increase traffic on their websites.

Keeping competitors at edge

In this competitive world, businesses try to opt for new techniques to keep competitors at bay. So when more consumers are using their mobile devices to search or shop online, brands have to cater to the needs of consumers by providing them with access to a mobile-friendly website. Businesses these days are incorporating responsive web design for their brands so that consumers can easily navigate through the site seamlessly. Also shopping online is hassle free with the help of this feature. So to keep competitors at bay, responsive web design is a must have.

These are some of the reasons that underline the importance of responsive web design for almost any website. This approach provides a chance to support new kinds of devices and screens in the future as well. Scaling up and down with respect to the website is not a problem for responsive websites. So in the future, irrespective of the devices that hit the market, responsive websites will always be ready to fit the screen easily. Irrespective of the website being a e-commerce portal, informative resource based website or a social media website – responsive web design is the need of the hour. So go for a reliable responsive design company that would provide you with a good design for your website. So for businesses looking for potential consumers and also to retain existing ones, responsive websites can come to their rescue. When a user feels comfortable browsing a certain website, he or she returns to the same website repeatedly. So considering the ease of management, flexibility, cost effectiveness, gains in search engine optimization and improvements in user experience, businesses must go for responsive websites.

Generate key custom reports through Google Analytics

Google analytics is a web analytics service that Google offers, to track and report website traffic. It is considered to be the most commonly used web analytic service on the Internet. Businesses can understand the position of the pages of their websites online with ease by tracking quality and conversions metrics using Google Analytics. Integrating Google Analytics with your clients website is something you should opt for while completing a website project. This helps your client to track the success of their online business and provides you with the opportunity to strengthen your professional relations with your client. By providing analytic reporting and optimization services you can maintain a cordial professional relationship with your client.

However, some clients may not be aware of analytics and opening a dashboard without any direction can leave them puzzled. Setting up custom analytic reports can help your clients get a quick idea about their business, without the need for them to subscribe for Google Analytics Pro. Google Analytics offers us an array of preconfigured reports that helps us gather insights about website traffic and ecommerce transactions. By choosing the dimensions and metrics we define as per the needs of our clients, custom report lets us build our own reports. This also offers greater flexibility as one can choose up to five dimensions in every report. Any renowned digital marketing company will use these reports to help a business set themselves up online. Here are some of the custom Google analytic reports that will help your client get a better insight of their online business.

Customer acquisition report

If you want a report that talks about the channels that can contribute to the revenue of a business, you can import this report into your clients Analytics account. This offers a simple yet crucial perspective for any type of online business. This report will show your clients how their consumers are landing on-site and what channels contribute to the revenue of their business. The ecommerce data for each acquisition channel is broken down to total revenue, average value of the order and the conversion rate. This will help them identify specific channels where they should increase or decrease their marketing efforts.

Browser report

One of the most common ways in which certain online stores waste money, is the incompatibility of their website with certain browsers. The browser custom report shows conversions per browser. Segmenting this report with respect to devices can help one identify and rectify browser compatibility problems. This is one of the most important reports to measure a sites performance as well as the acquisition patterns of consumers when it comes to their website. So business owners are free from the loss of money that generally happens due to incompatibility with certain browsers.

Organic traffic landing page report

Many ecommerce owners will implement a fundamental Search Engine Optimization strategy to boost organic traffic to their online store. The organic traffic landing page tries to overcome this barrier to allow one to see the top performing landing pages for organic traffic. This report will filter traffic by organic sessions on landing pages and will also help you to have a complete understanding of profitable landing pages that organic visitors visit. By using the landing pages as your preliminary dimension, you can manually assess what content or keywords can drive organic traffic.

Page timing report

This custom analytic report is very important as it helps identify problematic pages that need attention. From this report it is easy to understand when and why pages take extra time to load as well as why they have a high bounce rate. This helps business owners to identify and get issues that cause pages to take time to load corrected. The report is also very helpful in understanding the load time to bounce rate on a page.

E-mail assessment report

Most online businesses tend to use email marketing to increase sales. It is one of the most common, effective and widely used marketing strategies for businesses that have a sound presence online. E-mail campaigns can play a better role in generating more sales by reaching out to a larger number of target consumers. If one is planning to use e-mail marketing to drive return traffic to their online business, the email assessment report will help your client understand the role campaigns play in sales. By having a proper understanding of the campaigns that lead to greater numbers of transactions or revenue, one has additional data to optimize the efforts of email marketing.

Mobile performance report

This is an important reports that helps understand how well your site is optimized for viewing on mobiles. The report helps one to understand where to make improvements with regards to mobile site optimization. These days most users check websites on their mobiles. Be it online shopping or browsing a website, the number of users surfing the net on mobiles is high. When a website is not working on a smartphone properly, they are hampering business. Especially if the business is involved in products or sales, the website should run smoothly irrespective of the device used. This report helps to understand whether the site is working well on smartphones and how much more optimization is required on the site.

Device comparison report

The way people shop these days is going through a massive change. While some people prefer to shop online from their desktop others are comfortable shopping from their smartphones. When it comes to shopping online, mobile users behave very differently from desktop users. Mobile users will use different channels to visit a site online and will interact with the site in unique ways. The Device Comparison Report will allow business owners to understand the difference in behavior between mobile and desktop users. They can understand how user behavior is based on the device they are shopping from, and what acquisition sources drive the most profitable consumers.

Time of day/day of week transaction report

The time of day/day of week transaction report offers clients a detailed view of sales during the past week. The report is very easy to identify the hours of the day, days of the week and the combination of the both when the highest amount of sales take place. This custom report is very easy to understand the particular days and hours that lead to poor and high revenue performance. The period where the revenue is poor can then be utilized as an opportunity for them to run special marketing promotions. This report also provides data that is used to fine tune existing marketing promotions to increase their efficiency thus increasing traffic as well as sales for the organization.

Content efficiency report

This report is made to focus on key metrics that help identify web pages that perform best, and those that needs more optimization. The content efficient report makes it easy to figure out which web pages are more engaging. It will also help one understand what type of content – videos, pictures, reviews or demos, is more valuable to users. The report is also helpful to understand which content delivers business and which is of no profit value.

Traffic acquisition from social media report

This report is very important for businesses to understand which social media channels are driving more traffic to a site. This helps the web business owners to understand whether traffic is being translated into tangible results for their business. This will help the owners to understand which social media drives bring in more traffic for their business. The data from this report can then be utilized for generating sales.

Referring pages report: SEO

this report is a great way to gauge the effectiveness of link building efforts of a business. It is also an ideal way to figure out the top referring links for your business. The referral column on the web page usually talks about which page the links are coming from. Bounce rate and average session duration indicates which links are of high quality. It will also help businesses understand and identify the links that are generating higher business value.

Custom made reports on Google analytic play an important role in understanding the position of a business online with respect to SEO, content, customer behavior and device usage. Understanding the requirements of an online business is easier with the help of these custom made Google analytic reports. The best part of these reports is that no skilled professional is needed to understand the reports. Be it a good digital marketing company or the online business experts, anybody can understand the reports easily without any hassle. Custom made reports are easy to understand and can help businesses work on areas they need to improve for a sound online presence.

What is responsive design and why is it important

Nowadays people prefer to browse the internet on mobile phones, smart phones, tablets or mini laptops. They prefer to use convenient electronic devices that are easy to handle and carry from one place to another. earlier checking social media profiles, applications, specific websites or just browsing the internet from smart phones or tablets was not easy. The layout of most websites did not match the screen size, making them difficult to navigate. However, the advancements in technology allowed the creation of new methods to enable ease of use. A website with a responsive web design will always adapt to the screen, regardless of the device. These websites offer the best user experience by reformatting themselves according to the device that is used to browse it. ‘Responsive design’ is the next big thing in the web design domain. It will make your website device friendly and improve the way it looks not only on small but on large screens as well.

What is responsive design?

A responsive design website is developed in a way where the content, images and the structure of the website adjusts for optimal viewing on any device. This type of design automatically scales the content and other elements to match the screen size of the device that is used to view it. It allows the layout of the overall site to change with respect to the screen size. For example, when a user accesses a site on their desktop, they get a full view of the website. But when the user visits the same site using a smart phone or a tablet, the site will retract to fit on the small screen.

The ultimate goal of responsive design is to get rid of unnecessary scrolling, resizing, zooming or any panning that would happen when visiting websites that have not been optimized for different devices. It is very difficult to browse these kinds of websites on devices with smaller screens. Businesses may even lose potential consumers, as they become frustrated trying to figure out how to do something on these websites.

Instead of developing different websites for different screen sizes, one can design a single responsive design website that scales up and down automatically to match the device that is used to view it.

Why is responsive design important?

The reasons that make responsive design important are as follows –

Ideal for multi device users

We live in a world where websites are viewed on different devices. In this busy world, people find it easy to browse through a website while they travel or when they are sipping a cup of coffee. Retrieving information using smartphones or laptops is quite easy and also seamless at the same time. Sometimes a user has to leave a website abruptly only to come back later. Also users can return to the same website from any other device at some other time. So modern websites need to work well at any time regardless of the device they are viewed on. If a user visits your website for particular information and they return later using a different device looking for the same piece of information, they should not fail to locate it. The consistency of information must exist regardless of the device the visitor uses. There comes the need for responsive design, as it ensures the consistency of information irrespective of any device. So users can check the same website from a tablet and later check the same content from their smartphones. A website with responsive web design will help the user retrieve required information, shop online or simply browse without a hassle.

Improve search engine rankings

It has been a long time since Google recommended using responsive web design to support different devices and screen sizes. This recommendation went a step further when the search engine started adding a “Mobile friendly” label to those websites that used this approach. The labels appeared on the search results page on any mobile device. From April 2015, Google began rewarding those sites that have been developed responsively for multi-device support. By rewarding mobile friendly sites, it is evident that responsive web design is an important criterion in SEO. So for websites to rank better in search engine results, it is important that websites be designed based on the responsive web design approach.

Increase in lead generation, sales and conversions for businesses

Apart from search engine benefits, responsive design is an important factor for generating leads and increasing sales and conversions. Users feel more comfortable when they shop online or purchase a product from their tablet rather than after browsing the website on a desktop. Responsive web design makes it easy for consumers to shop online for products they desire. Users can easily find a product online when they search for them using a smartphone. They can also retrieve information easily from devices like smartphones and tablets. Surveys and studies have revealed that responsive design websites are an important factor for increasing conversion rates for a brand. There has been a research that found out that 69% of users have shopped on their mobile device during the last 30 days. People find it more convenient to purchase any product using their smartphones or tablets rather than being forced to use a desktop. Even enquiring about a particular product or service is easy with the help of small, easy to handle electronic devices. So websites built responsively aid to better navigation and thus increase sales and conversion rate.

One site to maintain

It is very difficult to maintain different websites for different devices. Updating more than one site, managing content and maintaining the sites is a hectic task. Firstly, a multiplication of the workload is needed to maintain several sites for the same brand, at the same time. Also running SEO campaigns for more than one site is really hectic and costly. This requires that a business hire more people who would be dedicated only to updating the websites and also manage the content. Secondly websites for small screen devices will have a subset of the original content and feature. So this can be different from the feature and content of the “normal version” of the site. This may frustrate multi-device users who expect to access the same information across all their devices. So as a result they will abandon the site abruptly and never bother to visit the site again. Having one responsive site to maintain rather than multiple versions of the same site is much easier. The cost involved for a responsive site is also less as compared to the expenditure involved in maintaining more than one sites. A good responsive design company will help you get a site that runs well across all the devices and that is easy to maintain. So everything is stored in one single place for easy maintenance.

Seamless user experience

Websites that do not have a responsive web design are difficult to navigate on small screens. Be it tablet or smartphone, the text appears all jumbled up, images are not aligned and users find it difficult to get the required information after scrolling through endless pages. It is really painful and also hectic to find the required information after so much of scrolling. A website aligned to responsive web design will provide consumers with a better user experience. There is no need to zoom and shrink the text or images on the screen. The content automatically adjusts to the screen of the device. When a user receives a seamless experience, the user will come back to the website again. So the website traffic increases to a great extent. This is something good for brands looking forward to increase traffic on their websites.

Keeping competitors at edge

In this competitive world, businesses try to opt for new techniques to keep competitors at bay. So when more consumers are using their mobile devices to search or shop online, brands have to cater to the needs of consumers by providing them with access to a mobile-friendly website. Businesses these days are incorporating responsive web design for their brands so that consumers can easily navigate through the site seamlessly. Also shopping online is hassle free with the help of this feature. So to keep competitors at bay, responsive web design is a must have.

These are some of the reasons that underline the importance of responsive web design for almost any website. This approach provides a chance to support new kinds of devices and screens in the future as well. Scaling up and down with respect to the website is not a problem for responsive websites. So in the future, irrespective of the devices that hit the market, responsive websites will always be ready to fit the screen easily. Irrespective of the website being a e-commerce portal, informative resource based website or a social media website – responsive web design is the need of the hour. So go for a reliable responsive design company that would provide you with a good design for your website. So for businesses looking for potential consumers and also to retain existing ones, responsive websites can come to their rescue. When a user feels comfortable browsing a certain website, he or she returns to the same website repeatedly. So considering the ease of management, flexibility, cost effectiveness, gains in search engine optimization and improvements in user experience, businesses must go for responsive websites.