Have you heard about “responsive websites” and wondered to yourself what that is? Well you need to know what responsive sites are as they will be coming to a site near you very soon (and are already here)!
Responsive websites are essentially an extenuation of mobile websites and are “liquid” in nature; meaning that they automatically conform to the device you are viewing the site on. You may be asking yourself But isn’t that what a mobile site is and does? well sort of. Like we discussed in our last blog entry, a mobile site is built off platform and on a different site and then connected to your current site. Where a responsive site is really cool and unique, is that you do not need to do that as the responsiveness is built into the template itself. What this means is that when you choose a responsive template and have your website built, you don’t need to worry about it being mobile or anything of that nature. Since the template was built to be responsive it “responds” to any device and automatically conforms. It allows you to keep the exact features of your template onto any device, where as a mobile site (since it is built separately and attached later) will look different most likely.
Responsive, just like mobile sites, greatly increase your search engine optimization and is one of the integral ways you can influence your quality score on Google and other search engines (how they rank search results). There is no difference to Google or SEO (search engine optimization) between a website with a “Mobile Site” or one with a “Responsive Site” but you want to make sure you have at least one.
Now if you already have a website or recently built your site without a responsive site, that’s ok, as you can still build the mobile site and connect it. But you can easily see how responsive templates are the way of the future and if you are redesigning or building a new site you definitely should choose a responsive template.
Mobile…er Responsive Matters!
Skol,
Ben Theis
