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A Guide to Boosting Website Traffic With Responsive Web Design

Over 50% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Meanwhile, 74% of users are more likely to return to mobile-friendly websites. In fact, 80% of customers are keen to buy from responsive websites, too.

Mobile e-commerce also accounts for about 40% of the total US e-commerce.

If your website isn’t responsive, you could lose site traffic, leads, and sales. You’ll struggle to accomplish your digital marketing goals as well.

Are you struggling to boost website traffic this year? With responsive web design, you can generate more traffic. Otherwise, you’ll fall behind the competition.

There are many ways to boost your responsiveness and almost all digital marketing agencies should be able to provide this service.

responsive web design

What Is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive web design (RWD) is a method of designing websites that adapts to the screen size and orientation of the device on which it’s being viewed.

The goal of RWD is to make your website look good across all devices, from smartphones to tablets to desktops.

The benefits of responsive web design are numerous:

  • It makes your site more accessible for users with disabilities or limited access to technology.
  • It allows you to create one version of your site that works well on any device.
  • You can use the same markup and style across all devices, so it’s easier to maintain.
  • And when you have a mobile-first approach, you don’t need separate sites for desktop and mobile — just one site that looks great on both.

Responsive website design won’t only help you generate traffic, though. 

Here are the benefits of responsive web design that can help your business. Read on to learn more!

7 Advantages Of Responsive Web Design That Can Help Your Business

benefits of responsive web design

1. Reach More Customers

About 74% of users are more likely to return to mobile-friendly websites. People spend about 70% of their internet time on mobile devices too.

Your target audience is already online, researching businesses from their smartphones. Responsive web design will help you reach these customers.

Visitors can have a cohesive experience on your site, whether they’re using a:

  • Smartphone
  • Laptop
  • Desktop
  • Tablet

A responsive website ensures consistency across devices, enhancing user experience and reducing bounce rates. With seamless navigation on all screen sizes, visitors are more likely to stay engaged.

Moreover, Google favors mobile-friendly sites, boosting their search engine rankings. Conversely, non-responsive sites risk lower rankings and decreased visibility.  Google also looks for websites that have higher click-through rates and dwell times. As you generate website traffic, people will continue clicking around and reading your content.

Boosting SEO rankings for a range of target keywords can help with boosting website traffic, too. Otherwise, your ranking will drop. With responsive and effective SEO web design, you can improve your ranking and keep boosting website traffic.

Related article: 10 SEO Benefits of Responsive Web Design in 2022

2. Improve the User Experience

responsive web design improves user experience - people browsing using different device

Google wants to provide its users with an easy, fast and convenient experience. When determining rankings, it considers how users interact with your site.

Creating a positive user experience (UX) can help with boosting SEO rankings. Remember, higher SEO rankings will help you generate more website traffic.

About 90% of online shoppers won’t return to a website after a negative user experience. Meanwhile, 70% of digital businesses fail because of bad UX. 

A higher bounce rate can have a negative impact on your search engine ranking. A lower ranking will make it more difficult for you to reach customers. Your prospects will visit a competitor’s website instead. Google prioritizes websites that offer a positive user experience. By creating a responsive site, you can show Google you prioritize UX, too.

Speed

Speeding up your website can improve the user experience. Consumers will have a fast, easy experience on your website. They won’t have to waste valuable time waiting for your pages to load. Instead, they’ll have immediate access to the information they’re looking for.

Different elements of your website can slow your pages down. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to determine what’s causing your site to lag.

Then, you can make changes to speed up your site and improve the user experience.

Coding

A clean code can impact your responsive website’s ability to generate traffic. Your plugins and JavaScript can prevent search engine bots from crawling and indexing your website.

Google’s bots crawl and index your website, searching for target keywords. If it doesn’t find your target keyword at the top of the page, it could impact your ranking.

You’ll rank lower on search engines like Google, reducing the traffic you can generate.

Core Vitals

If you’re interested in boosting website traffic, consider a responsive website design that follows Google’s core web vitals.

Google’s core web vitals consider UX-related signals to determine your rankings. Google looks at your:

  • Mobile-friendliness
  • Intrusive interstitial guidelines
  • HTTPS-security
  • Safe-browsing
  • Speed
  • Responsiveness
  • Visual stability

There are three main vitals you’ll need to consider when updating your website:

  1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
  2. First Input Delay (FID)
  3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

LCP considers how long it takes your page’s main content to load. Your content could include plain text, images, and videos.

You can improve your LCP by:

  • Leveraging page caching
  • Minifying CSS and JavaScript codes
  • Using a content delivery network
  • Choosing better hosting
  • Optimizing your images

FID measures the website’s interactivity based on user inputs.

Think about how people interact with your website. What happens when they click around or perform keypresses? How long will it take the browser to react to their interactions?

Improving the reaction time will ensure your pages are responsive. You can improve your FID by:

  • Deleting unwanted JavaScript code and files
  • Minifying and compressing JavaScript files
  • Enabling browser caching
  • Splitting up long JavaScript tasks
  • Eliminating unnecessary third-party scripts (plugins and themes)

CLS considers how different elements move on your pages as the page loads. Neglecting CLS neglects your website’s visual stability.

Reduce CLS by:

  • Setting fixed dimensions on your images
  • Limiting embedded content and iframes
  • Preloading your custom web fonts

Improving your website’s code will improve the user experience. Then, visitors will engage more with your content and stay longer.

You can increase SEO performance and your ranking to keep boosting website traffic.

3. Reduce Your Bounce Rate

Responsive web design will ensure your site is easy to use. If your site is messy or complicated, visitors will leave without clicking around. Your bounce rate will rise as a result.

Google studies your bounce rate to determine your search engine rankings. A higher bounce rate indicates people aren’t interested in your content. It might think your content isn’t relevant to the user’s search intent.

If you’re focused on boosting SEO rankings this year, you need to keep the user’s search intent in mind.

bounce rate by industry

Search intent indicates what users expect to find from a search. If your content doesn’t meet the user’s needs, they’ll bounce. You’ll lose website traffic and potential leads or sales as a result. Responsive website design can ensure your website is easy to use and navigate.

You can use UX design trends to improve online usability, too. For example, you can:

  • Add white space to give content room to breathe
  • Use headings and subheadings to organize your content
  • Use contrasting colors to improve readability
  • Improve your font styles and sizes to improve readability
  • Speed up your page load times
  • Make sure your website is responsive or mobile-optimized
  • Ensure forms are easy to use
  • Improve your website’s security

UX design trends can ensure your website is easy to use and navigate. The more people click around and stick around, the more your bounce rate will fall. Then, you can improve your ranking to reach more customers.

You can work with an experienced web design and development agency to reduce your bounce rate, too.

Adding fresh forms, polls, quizzes, buttons, and other conversion opportunities can help you boost engagement. As people engage with your content, they’ll stick around longer. Your dwell times will improve, too.

As your bounce rate drops, your ranking will continue to rise.

4. Boost Your SEO Ranking

boost seo ranking

Remember, most people don’t look beyond the first page of a Google search. If you’re interested in boosting website traffic, you need better SEO rankings. For better SEO rankings, you need a responsive website.

Google uses mobile-first indexing when determining rankings. Its bots will crawl and index the mobile version of your website first. If you don’t have a mobile version of your site, Google will boost your competitor’s sites instead.

As you increase SEO performance, you’ll also:

  • Generate brand awareness
  • Build brand recognition
  • Develop brand trust
  • Grow brand loyalty
  • Retain long-time customers
  • Increase website traffic
  • Generate high-quality leads
  • Boost online sales
  • Establish your authority in the industry
  • Boost your ROI

Remember, more people are conducting searches from their smartphones. If your website isn’t responsive, they’ll struggle to explore your content. They’ll leave without clicking around, increasing your bounce rate.

Instead, you can use responsive web design to improve your SEO rankings. You’ll reach more customers, generate more traffic, and improve your rankings further. You can improve your rankings with SEO management services.

5. Avoid Duplicates

Creating a separate mobile website can hurt your SEO ranking. Google will see it as duplicate content, which harms SEO. Your ranking will drop, impacting your ability to attract traffic.

Instead of a mobile version of your website, choose a responsive web design. You can maintain a single website, which will make it easier to make updates. In addition to saving you time, Google won’t get confused.

6. Attract Social Media Traffic

When social media users click on links to your website, they expect to see a mobile website. Otherwise, you could impact their user experience. They’ll leave, impacting your bounce rate.

A responsive site can encourage more social sharing. Social sharing can help you expand your reach, boosting website traffic for your business. You can grow your audience and further boost your SEO ranking as a result.

7. Generate Leads and Conversions

Boosting SEO rankings with a responsive site can help you generate more leads and conversions, too.

About 62% of companies increase sales by designing responsive mobile platforms. Meanwhile, 72% of people want mobile-friendly websites.

If a company’s website isn’t mobile-friendly, about 40% of users will return to a search engine to choose a different result. As you generate more leads, your ROI will improve. You can grow your business while keeping costs down.

Responsive Web Design vs Adaptive Design

Responsive design adapts the rendering (or appearance) of a single-page version, whereas adaptive design adapts the rendering for multiple devices.

Adaptive web design is the process of designing a website that adapts to the user’s device.

It means that the website will be designed in such a way that it can be displayed on any screen size and resolution, without compromising its layout or functionality.

Responsive web design is a method of creating websites that adapts their layout for different devices, such as desktops, tablets, smartphones, etc. It allows users to view sites at optimal resolutions regardless of the device they are using. It’s important to note that responsive design does not mean your site will look good on all mobile devices.

Three Main Components Of a Responsive Web Design

Responsive web design consists of three main parts: the media query, web browsers, and the responsive web.

  1. The media query is a CSS selector that defines how your website should look on different devices (desktop, tablet, mobile).
  2. The web browser is the software that displays the webpage to the user and detects which version of the internet explorer you are using and adjusts itself accordingly.
  3. The responsive web interface allows you to adjust the layout of your site for different devices by changing the width and height of the page in relation to the device being used. This includes images, text, videos, links, buttons, forms, etc.

Responsive Web Design Examples

Web developer designs websites for different types of devices. Responsive web design concept

Here are some of the best responsive web design examples that you can use as inspiration for your own designs:

  • The New York Times WebsiteThis website was designed by the team at The New York Times to be viewed on any device. It uses HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript to create an easy-to-use experience across all devices.
  • The Guardian – The Guardian has created its own custom version of Bootstrap 3.0. This allows them to keep their site content separate from the layout. They also have a mobile-first approach which means they start with the smallest screen size and work up to larger screens.
  • BBC News – The BBC News website uses a similar style to the Guardian above. It uses a grid system and the same colors throughout. This makes it very easy to navigate around the site.
  • BMWBMW’s website has been redesigned using Responsive Web Design. The new design includes features such as a carousel slider, video player and image gallery.
  • NASA – NASA’s website has recently undergone a redesign. It now uses a fluid grid system, making it easier to view on smaller devices.
  • WiredWired’s website has undergone a complete redesign. Their new website looks great on desktops and tablets and even works well on smartphones.

Takeaways When Considering Responsive Web Design for your Website

successful business - coworkers are very happy

With responsive web design, boosting website traffic can feel like a challenge. and you can improve the user experience and keep visitors engaged. As people engage with your content, your SEO ranking will improve.

Then, you can reach even more customers and grow your business! Need help illuminating your brand with a responsive website? We’re here to help!

If you need help in developing and making sure it is responsive, BrandLume.com can help you!

Contact us today to get started.

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