What is a Responsive Website? And Why is it The Most Important Thing for Your Business

Responsive web design is a new approach to building websites. It’s about carefully crafting a website to be usable and aesthetically pleasing across a wide range of devices. Responsive websites use a fluid layout that adapts and responds to your user. Meaning that you are able to maintain one website that will serve all of your customers, no matter where or what they are viewing it on.

2013 will be the year of the responsive website. PC sales are already plummeting. 2012 was the worst year of PC sales since 2001. Which might seem confusing, since everyone uses the internet. You would be hard pressed to find someone without a Facebook page, or linked in account. 

So, if everyone is using the internet, why are PC sales dropping? Because the devices they are accessing the internet with are changing. Sales for tablets, smart phones and everything in between are skyrocketing. Five or six years ago, your customer was sitting at a desk and using a mouse to navigate your website. Today's internet user could be, literally, anywhere. They might be browsing your website from the passenger seat of a moving car, walking down the street, or waiting in line at a store. They could be using one of thousands of different devices. The one thing that they will all have in common is that they will have little patience for a clunky website. 

Your customers have changed as well. They are now web-savvy. They've used hundreds and thousands of websites at this point, and they have come to expect very specific things. They expect that they can find your businesses contact information, location, and hours of operation within seconds, not minutes. They expect easy to use menu systems, up-to-date information and social media integration. And they expect to find all of this whether they are using their phone, tablet or desktop computer.

Technology is changing at faster and faster rates, and your website needs to be ready to respond to it. Today your customer is browsing the web on a phone or tablet; tomorrow they might be browsing it from a screen in their car, or on the fridge. Responsive web design allows your website to preform in all of these conditions and to take your business forward.

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