THE IMPORTANCE OF RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
If you're anything like me you can reach out your arms and make a circle around yourself and somewhere in that personal bubble you'll find your cell phone. Generally speaking, this is the norm these days. Everyone has a smart phone and is connected to the internet these days, and therefore connected to all the information in the world. It's amazing to think that just 15 years ago I carried a beeper on my jeans and then just a few years from there thought that my flip phone was like a piece of futuristic Star Trek technology. We've come so far and now that we are all connected and using our phones as a major gateway to the information we need it's more important than ever to have a responsive website.
50% of Google searches are conducted on a mobile device or tablet and I predict that that percentage will only continue to increase. Whether you use a tablet, a phone or a PC it's important that the website you're looking for conforms to your device and moves effortlessly and quickly to what you are looking for. This is what we mean when we say "responsive".
Companies should be cognizant of the fact that a large portion of the public is accessing their website through a mobile device and that their site should adapt fluidly and change the page size, layout and text accordingly. A responsive site doesn't have different pages for each device but rather evolves to conform to each device's parameters. Not only does it adapt, but it makes everything that you can do on a PC possible on a mobile device and makes it easy.
Is it too much to ask to have all of the options from a regular website available on my phone?
It isn't entirely easy from a development standpoint but the answer is no, it's not too much to ask and we should begin to see all websites trending in this direction. Developing a traditional and mobile site is going to soon be a thing of the past.
Search engines make responsive sites a preference because they are higher quality, easier to download and create a more optimized experience. To increase and better your SEO and get noticed you're going to want a more responsive website and now that we understand how to make that happen in seamless fashion, we'll stop wasting time developing two separate sites.
If you're planning to build a new site it is most important to start responsive to remain competitive in your industry. If you have an existing site, it's smart to look at your site on every kind of device and take notice of differences and issues in your experience and make the changes needed to stay ahead.