How to Make your Website Look Great using a Responsive Website Design
Most people want a website that looks great and performs well on all devices. After all, why would someone want to visit a website that looks terrible on their phone or tablet?
Written By Andy Hodson
Jan 2023 / Reading Length: 6 minutes
Most people want a website that looks great and performs well on all devices. After all, why would someone want to visit a website that looks terrible on their phone or tablet? Responsive web design is what we do to help websites adapt to all screen sizes and resolutions, not only for desktop but also for mobile, tablet and even TV.
But designing a responsive website can be tricky, especially if you don’t know where to start. In this article, we will outline some tips on how you can make your website look great on all devices.
How to make your website look great
When it comes to making your website look great on all devices, there are a few key things to keep in mind. First, you want to make sure that your website is responsive. What does this mean? This means that your website should adjust its layout and content to fit the screen of the device.
whether it is a desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. By having a design based on this responsive approach, you ensure that your visitors have an optimal viewing experience, no matter what device they are using.
To create a separate website version for each device would be expensive and exhaustive of your business’ resources, so this is where responsive web design proves useful. Responsive web design relies on the use of clever HTML and CSS media queries. Web developers aim to create flexible grids, layouts and images, in order to respond to the needs of each individual user.
When using a responsive grid for your website design you should also keep in mind the use of images. How a banner image looks on a desktop may not work as well when viewed on a mobile. On a responsive grid we would need to create various break points on how the source image is viewed. Adjusting the crop and focus of the used image, optimising it for the device. Take a look at the image below which illustrates this.
Take a look at our article on How to make the most of your homepage for more insight on what’s important within your responsive website design.
Why it’s Important to Have a Responsive Website
Well, as of November 2022, 59.5% of all website traffic comes from people using mobile devices. If your site is not responsive you might drive away the 4.32 billion (according to Statista) online users who prefer to browse the internet on their smartphones. So designing a website that is responsive to the device it is being viewed on is important for several reasons.
A responsive design instantly makes your site mobile friendly. Google’s mobile first indexing has been gradually taking over the web and becoming the standard. Meaning that only content on mobile versions of the website will be crawled by Google and visible in organic search results. Improving your search engine optimisation (SEO).
Your visitors also get an optimal viewing experience, no matter what type of device they are using. It makes your website look great on all devices, which can give your visitors a better impression of your brand.
And another reason is that responsive sites have one URL and a similar HTML, which makes it easier for Google to index, crawl, and organise content.
Take Google’s mobile-friendly test here and see how your site compares.
The Benefits of Having a Responsive Website
We spoke about it earlier, having a responsive website design improves the general UX on a page and gives a better mobile experience. Here are a few benefits to help you decide if a responsive website is for you.
Better user experience – Responsive design allows for a better experience regardless of the device they are viewing your site on. Optimising a site correctly will help your site load faster and page load delays can significantly impact user satisfaction.
Cost effective – Opting for a responsive website rather than a dual-version site means you only have one site to maintain and update. And with only one URL for Google to index.
SEO Campaigns simplified – With a responsive website you only need one campaign. Allowing you to focus on keyword and competition research
Future flexibility & scalability – A responsive design gives you the most flexibly way to update to the latest devices, screen shapes and sizes. A responsive website is flexible enough to scale up or down to best fix a one screen or device. Therefore your site is always ready to meet new standards and devices.
More visitors – Having a responsive website with a great design to satisfy the user experience keep your visitors coming. A responsive website can boost your sales and help share your content. A slow and outdated-looking website can damage your reputation and make all these visitors question your reliability.
The Drawbacks of a Responsive Website
Responsive website design is not without its drawbacks. Below are a few disadvantages that can result from a responsive design.
Need more time to develop – When it comes to the responsive layout, it is way more difficult. Consideration has to be given to multiple breakpoints; mobile, laptop and desktop on layout and how it is navigated.
Outdated browser does not support media – If you are working with an old browser, the responsive template may not meet the media requirements. There are many old browsers that do not support such enclosed media queries.
Long time to download – Responsive websites that have not been properly optimised can take longer to load. While the images on a responsive website design are visually scaled down, it takes some time to scale back up to fit on different screen sizes. Meaning that you won’t have a similar page speed or load time when you access a particular website on a range of devices.
Vertical stacking – A negative repercussion of having a responsive design is the website content is normally stacked vertically on a mobile device. Having content stacked this way often pushes important buttons and features further down a screen that you would often like. And a user can become frustrated and leave because they cannot get to the information they are after quick enough.
Should you use Responsive Website Design?
The decision of whether or not to use responsive website design depends on your specific needs and goals. If you want to improve your SEO or ensure that all your visitors have an optimal viewing experience, then responsive website design is a good option.
However, if you are on a tight budget or your website doesn’t need to be mobile-friendly, then a non-responsive design may be a better option.
No matter what route you decide to take, keep in mind that the most important thing is to create a website that is user-friendly and meets the needs of your visitors.
Conclusion
A modern looking, mobile friendly, fast website is a must in todays busy environment. Especially if you have a growing business looking to attract new customers. Providing a professional and trustworthy online presence for your users/customers.
A responsive design allows your website content to flow fluidly across all sized devices and allows it to look great across all size and resolutions. Making it unnecessary to maintain multiple versions of your website for mobile or desktop. Saving you time, resource and effort.
Having beautiful looking, well optimised website is only the start. You will still need to fill it with good quality content, service and products. Your online presence is the digital face of your company. And you should work towards making it as friendly, accessible and flexible as you can for the best results.