Although there are many website designers in Charleston, South Carolina to choose from, there are some website designers that haven’t kept up with the times. For example, recently we were contacted by two businesses in the Charleston area that used the same web design agency to redesign their sites to be “mobile friendly.” After paying several thousand dollars to upgrade their sites, they saw that the sites weren’t mobile friendly at all. Instead, the web designer told these businesses that they would have to pay extra for a separate, mobile website. Not only is this “bad business,” it is bad web design. Specifically, this web site developer didn’t use responsive web design (RWD).

Before smart phones and tablets, it wasn’t necessary to include responsive web design in your business’s plans for the web. But now, it’s absolutely crucial if you want to show your customers that you care about their experience on your site–no matter where they access it from.

Responsive designs provide an optimal experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices such as desktop computers, tablets, and mobile phones.

5 Reasons Why Your Web Site Design Should Be a Responsive One

1. Google Recommends a Responsive Design

In most cases, Google will bring your website more traffic than any other source. That’s why any web designer in Charleston, SC or elsewhere should be developing sites that makes Google “happy.” Unfortunately, some web developers still design sites that are years behind the current trend of increasing use of mobile devices to view the web. These days, Google estimates that more than half of all searches are performed on mobile devices. Therefore, Google explicitly recommends a responsive design to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.

2. Consistent Website Visitor Experience

Many online consumers use multiple devices, such as laptops and smartphones, to shop for products or services. That means that your customers may begin their research on a mobile device and then later return to your site via their desktop. Having a responsive website design means that you have control over what your customers see and your site’s visitors will get a consistent experience no matter which device they use.

3. Less Cost & Work to Maintain

Having a responsive website costs less and requires less work than building and maintaining two separate websites for desktop or mobile visitors. With a responsive design, you only have to manage one domain and one version of each page. When you opt for a separate mobile website, you are doubling the work for yourself and your marketing team.

4. Designed for the Future

Responsive design is based on screen size and not device type. If your website is responsive, it will display properly no matter what the size screen of the device used to view it. Stated another way, your site will continue to look fantastic even as new devices, such as different smartphones, tablets, TV’s, and more, are being used for web browsing.

5. Ahead of the Competition

Increasingly users are using their mobile devices to search and make purchases online. That means you have to cater to that audience by having a mobile-friendly site. Some of your competitors aren’t making use of responsive, mobile-friendly designs, which means that they’re losing out on potential customers. You can stay ahead and take those customers away by ensuring that your website is responsive.