Think Responsively.You'll be Glad You Did!

By Nancy LeVasseur

“Responsive” is a relatively new word in the world of website design and development. It was coined a few years ago by Ethan Marcotte when he published an article in May 2010 introducing his concept. He used “responsive” to describe how a website should fluidly adapt, change, or redesign itself according to the device on which it’s being viewed. The term stuck, spread throughout the web development world, and Ethan is now known as the father of responsive design.

In a nutshell, responsive design is the practice of designing and developing websites that fluidly adapt content and functionality for the device on which they are being viewed – as opposed to creating separate websites for all breakpoints. Breakpoints, another industry word, refer to actual pixel widths where one design layout, along the range of screen sizes, gives way to another.

Breakpoints are measured in pixels. The most common breakpoints begin at 320px for smartphones and increase to cover the wide range of tablets, notebooks and finally desktops (480px, 600px, 760px, 1024px, and 1080px).

7 reasons why you should “think responsively.”

1. It'll save you time and money. It’s cost effective to host and manage one site versus many.

2. Having a responsive website gives you a competitive edge. Your end users will be impressed that you’ve gone responsive. Right away, they’ll sense that your brand is up to date, successful, and that you know what they need.

3. Your customers will have a much better experience viewing your content across different devices. What they viewed at work from a desktop will be easily viewed at home on their tablet or smartphone.

4. You’ll be all set should Google decide to include responsive in one of their organic search algorithms. And speaking of Google, even Google’s getting on the mobile band wagon. On July 22, 2013 Google automatically upgraded all PPC campaigns to its new “enhanced” mode thus ensuring ads will display on all mobile devices.

5. Google’s bots only need to crawl your site once as opposed to many times. This can indirectly help Google index, and then list, more of your site’s content on the search engine results page.

6. Using a single website address –as opposed to a different one for mobile- makes it easier and more likely that users will like, share, and link to your content. That’s a real plus for your business!

7. A single URL also helps Google's algorithms index your content correctly for display in organic search results.

Why should this matter to you?
Well, it wouldn't except for the fact that mobile usage trends cannot be ignored! By 2015, mobile devices are predicted to overtake desktops as the most popular way to access the web. 

• Mobile search is always on; 77% of mobile searches occur at home or at work – even in places likely to have a desktop computer.


• People like to search using mobile because it’s more convenient and quicker. They don’t have to get up, turn on the computer, and wait for it to boot up. And, they can search anytime, anywhere.


• Mobile devices are becoming the “instrument of choice.” People are no longer upgrading or purchasing new desktop computers. They are buying smarter smartphones.

Are you thinking responsively? What kind of experience do your future clients have on your non-mobile optimized website?