Did You Miss the Responsive Revolution?
I’ve been on this here Internet since the beginning, since before Al Gore even invented it.
I was there when music was free to download (and burn onto a CD!). I was there when Chrysler.com was a VERY DIRTY porn site (I was researching cars, and I guess the company hadn’t gotten around to buying the domain yet). I was there when a pixelated dancing banana was all the rage.
In those early days, websites were mostly what we called brochure-ware. A few static pages of HTML, some stock photos, and maybe, just maybe, a hit counter.
Soon, we realized that we needed some rules around usability and functionality. People were making websites with red text on black backgrounds. Someone was going to go blind trying to read that. Photos were horribly stretched or distorted. Pop-ups were everywhere. Navigation sometimes disappeared when you needed it most.
Occasionally, you’d go to a website and strange music would play.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that we’ve come a long way, baby. Not that there aren’t still some atrocious sites out there, but trust me. It’s way better now.
Today sites are much more user-friendly and consistent, so there are fewer unpleasant surprises.
Unless you happen to be one of the 2.6 BILLION people that own a smartphone!!
If you are, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of websites (shockingly, appallingly) suck on mobile. Text so tiny it’s illegible or gets cut off. Links so small that you keep accidentally clicking on the wrong one (SO ANNOYING!). Pages where you have to SCROLL SIDEWAYS to see all the content. Images that take so long to load that you bail and just ask Siri for what you were looking for.
I mean, everybody in the world of marketing has been saying “This is the year of mobile” for the last 5 years or so, but so many companies—good, reputable brands—still haven’t addressed this issue.
In May of last year, Google announced that more people were searching the web on their mobile devices than on desktops. And get this, 40% of people will choose a different search result if the first is not mobile-friendly.
Just in general, mobile web access has now surpassed fixed web access, which means more people are seeing your website on mobile devices than desktop computers. If your site doesn’t look good or work well on mobile, you could be alienating more than half of your audience.
That translates into a lot of lost traffic, lost conversions and lost sales.
The answer of course is good, responsive design. Responsive design makes use of flexible layouts, flexible images and cascading style sheet media queries. The goal of responsive design is to build web pages that detect the visitor's screen size and orientation – whether it’s an iPhone, a 72” flatscreen TV, or anything in between – and adjust the layout accordingly.
And hey, we happen to be really good at it.
Make the most of your mobile market. If you haven’t done so yet, it’s not too late. (I hear it’s STILL the year of mobile.) We’ve helped a lot of companies improve their mobile presence, which has led to more traffic, leads and sales. We can help you too. Let’s Talk.
Diane Callihan
With more than 20 years of experience writing for some of the country’s top brands, Diane helped to shape Roger West’s content strategy, lead generation, and PR efforts as Director of Marketing. She currently serves as President of Callihan Content Creation.