₦airaland Forum

3 Reasons to have a Responsive Website Design

Wondered why your website works better with responsive website design?

Just a few years back, websites used to be viewed mostly on laptops and PCs. Not anymore.

The consumer web is now predominantly on mobile phones and tablets, which is why responsive website design(RWD) deserves your attention.

Here are the top three reasons why responsive website design makes sense.

1. The web is now mobile first, and responsive website design means more business for you
Up to 94% of consumers now view your website on their mobile phones. Remember, mobile screens now come in many sizes and resolutions, right from the 320 x 480 pixels or lower dimensions of basic phones to 750 x 1334 pixels on the iPhone 7, or more.

Responsive website design(RWD) ports your website to any of these dimensions with ease, making the website browsing experience of your viewers intuitive and easy. What’s more, the same technology makes multiple device browsing of your website an easier and pleasurable experience.

Now, not only are 80% of mobile phone users using their phone to shop online, up to 72% of them even use their phone to compare prices, right inside a store. Imagine your old adoptive technology website on these phones. It will take quite some effort before visitors can make sense out of your website, and by the time most of them would be looking for other options. In fact, 80% will abandon the website inside just 15 seconds.

If your website has an average of 100 visitors a day, you are now losing 5 to 20 prospective customers every single day, to just one factor – responsive website design

2. Responsive website design means better search engine results
Mobile friendliness is now one of the factors which Google uses to rank your website, and the search engine recommends responsive website design(RWD) as a website best-practice. If your website is responsive, then Google will rank it higher, especially on mobile searches.

In addition, 55% of all social media interactions now happen on mobile phones, increasing the chances of your content being socially shared if your website runs on responsive website design.

3. Responsive website design makes it easier to manage your website
Before responsive website design came into vogue, website owners with significant mobile customers had to manage two websites – a full-fledged adoptive website and a stripped down mobile website. Content duplication was hard to avoid, and so was the constant threat of Google penalizing the website for duplicate content.

It’s complicated, to say the least. Imagine, a website user sharing a mobile URL from his mobile phone, and a laptop user clicking on it to see a tiny mobile screen size website on his large laptop screen.

With responsive website design(RWD) you have to manage only one website and one set of content, making it easier not only for your customers and prospects, but your marketing and web teams as well.

What’s there in a Domain Name?
A lot, in fact. There is more to website URLs than most small businesses are even aware of.

A well designed website URL can get your small business website a lot of customer traffic from your local area. On the other hand, a poorly conceptualized website URL can effectively keep your business out of search results.

Here are five things to note before you buy a website URL for your small business.

1. Add actual business or product keywords in your URL

Other things being equal, a website URL with your actual business or product in it will get higher rankings than others. Your small business website will rank even higher if the URL starts with the actual business or product.

If you own a legacy URL which you cannot change, then the next best thing to do is to build sub domains which start with the business or product keyword in the URL.

If you happen to have these keywords in both your small business website URL and your sub domains, then you have a force-multiplier effect at play. Expect higher rankings.

2. Ever Heard of an "Exact Match Domain"?

An "Exact Match Domain” (EMD) is a website URL that exactly matches a popular search query. For example, "findyoga.com” exactly matches the search phrase "Find Yoga”.

EMDs are a shortcut to top search rankings, but only if you have built a high-quality website around it. Otherwise, the new Google Algorithm will penalize your small business website and you may find your search rankings going down.

3. Always register or renew your small business website domain for 3 years or more

One of the factors used by Google to measure the authenticity of a website is the length of time the website URL is registered for. Domains registered for shorter lengths of time are often categorized as illegitimate doorway domains.

Registering for 3 years or more not only gets you a better price for your domain, but earns you valuable points with Google too.

4. Make your domain "WhoIs” information Public

Google views domains with private "WhoIs” information as domains with "something to hide”. Public "WhoIs” information is one of the factors used by Google to ascertain the legitimacy of the website.

Unless you have compelling reasons to do so, never hide your "WhoIs” information. In fact, use your "WhoIs” information to make it easy for prospective clients and partners to reach your small business.


5. Domain History Matters

Keep your website humming all the time. A consistent domain history keeps you in good standing with search engines.

Avoid getting penalized by search engines. Once you are penalized, that record stays with your small business website domain history and will be a negative influence on your search results for a long time, even when the factors that led to the penalization have been removed.