I am sure you have heard your Phoenix web design company talk a lot about making your next website responsive but is responsive really right for your online business? Yes, you do need a website that will render on mobile devices as mobile devices are quickly surpassing laptops and desktops as the most used devices while surfing the web but that doesn't mean you have to go with a responsive web design necessarily as you could also go with a mobile website. You should make sure you weigh the pros and cons of a responsive website and then determine which one would fit your business's needs the best. Let's take a look at the pros and cons of a responsive website.
PROS
- A responsive design will adjust to every screen no matter what device you are using. Have you ever tried to go to a website that rendered differently depending upon if you were using your tablet, smart phone or PC? If you have then you know the frustration that it can cause a user visiting your website. If you website is rendering terribly on any device then you may be losing customers that you have spent time and money to get to your website.
- Does your website produce a ton of content? If so then a responsive web design may be for you. With a responsive design it will render large amounts of content very well across mobile devices. This works great for News and Blog websites.
- One of the biggest benefits to a responsive design is the fact that it is the same site. Unlike a mobile website where it is actually two separate sites a responsive site is the same site which means that you only have to update content and pages one time rather than twice. This makes it much easier to maintain your website. It is also much cheaper as your web design company will only have to make updates to one site and if you are running any type of SEO campaign you won't have to attempt to rank two sites you will only have to rank one site.
- Search engines like responsive websites now don't go thinking that this means that you are going to rank higher in the search engines simply because you have a responsive website. Search engines are able to crawl responsive websites better which will help you rank but you still need to be running an active search engine optimization campaign.
CONS
- One of the biggest downsides to a responsive design is that many times your website load times will suffer. Now it may not suffer on a desktop or laptop computer but when you start using different devices you will likely notice a slower load time. This is because most responsive designs use the same code whether it is loading from a desktop or a smart phone so when somebody that is using a smart phone is visiting your website there is a lot of code for them to load up. Where as a mobile website the code is developed specifically for a mobile device allowing mobile users to load up your website much quicker.
- Most responsive websites aren't able to deliver mobile specific content or mobile specific call to action buttons. Many websites like to have different content and call to action buttons for their mobile users. This can be an issue when you have a responsive website.
So now that you know the pros and cons of having a responsive web design you must decide if it is best for your business needs. Personally, I would suggest going with a responsive web design over a mobile website because for us the pros of a responsive website far out weigh the cons. Don't get me wrong there are benefits to going with a mobile website you will just have to determine what works best for you and your online business.