Why Do I Need a Responsive Website?

From time to time, we’ll work with a client that is entirely satisfied with the look and feel of their website and doesn’t want a redesign. In some cases, we’ve had clients sign up with us immediately after having someone else redesign their site and don’t want to go through the entire design process again. However , sometimes we sign clients that have the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality even though we know for a fact that a redesigned website would help their marketing efforts in the long run. Let’s talk this out a bit…

A few years back, mobile search numbers quickly began increasing and it was entirely understandable that a mobile site was part of the future of marketing. Here at SLS, we built out mobile sites for our clients because we knew that mobile search was only going to become increasingly prevalent . Sure enough, mobile search has become so popular over the last few years that some projections have the number of mobile searches SURPASSING searches on desktop computers by as early as 2015.

Nowadays, with more users searching the web via tablets (and from various tablet sizes, at that), having a website that’s tablet-friendly has started to become popular. Enter responsive websites, and why it’s truly important for attorney websites to be overhauled using responsive coding.

What is Responsive Web Design?

According to Google, “Responsive web design is a setup where the server always sends the same HTML code to all devices and CSS is used to alter the rendering of the page on the device using media queries. Our algorithms should automatically detect this setup if all Googlebot user agents are allowed to crawl the page assets (CSS, javascript, and images).”

To put it in simpler terms, responsive design allows websites to conform to whatever type of device they’re being displayed on. Whether the user is on a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or mobile device, the website in question will “respond” (adjust) to the size of that device, and (most importantly) display properly. Makes sense, right?

Well, with portable devices becoming so commonplace these days, it has NEVER been more important to make your website responsive. Even if you don’t want the site to be completely redesigned, it’s important that it’s recoded so users get a similar experience from one device to the next. That is, you want to make sure user experience is consistent across all devices, that your content ALWAYS displays properly, and that your brand message is never disregarded because your site isn’t loading properly on a device.

On top of the added user benefits, Google is a big supporter of responsive websites as well. Check out the following webpage for more info on exactly why Google prefers responsive coding these days: https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-seo.

On top of that, a refreshed, modern-looking website can say a lot for your brand credibility from a user standpoint. Cutting edge websites tend to attract attention, and in the world of attorney marketing where the differences between sites are minimal, anything that can help you stand out definitely should not be ignored. It’s safe to say responsive coding is here to stay, so embrace it!

What do you think of responsive design? Share your thoughts with us in the comments…