Is Responsive Web Design Enough?

Adopting responsive web design is often touted as being the most important single change any site can make to engage visitors and earn conversions.

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But is responsive web design really the sole solution to a site’s problems, or are there other modern techniques that are equally powerful and relevant?

Mobile Matters

No site owner can ignore the fact that mobile devices now dominate the web, both in terms of site visits and search queries.

Mobile indexing is also on the horizon, meaning Google and other search engines will be even harsher with sites that are not optimised for portable devices.

Because of this, it is vital for all sites to work seamlessly on smartphones and tablets, not just on desktops. And in some respects, a responsive approach to design will make this easy to achieve.

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Responsive Limitations

Part of the problem with relying solely on responsive design is that it does not address a number of the other factors that can compromise a site’s search rank. This includes things like page load speed, user experience and the legibility of visual elements.

Investing in expert help from an agency like https://happy2host.com/, which offers WordPress web design in London, is a good idea to ensure that any responsive design tweaks are also carried out in a way that pushes the entire site in the right direction in terms of mobile-friendliness.

Alternative Options

Responsive design plug-ins for existing CMS platforms are useful as a short-term solution, but in the long term Google is hoping to push its accelerated mobile pages (AMP) platform forwards. This slims down sites so that they are able to load quickly on smartphones.

The downside of the AMP framework is that it eliminates features that might be key to the purpose of a site, so it is not suitable for every project.

Building landing pages to AMP principles is a good idea, however, since this will mean that visitors who click through from a mobile device will be catered to in the best possible way.

Progressive web apps (PWAs) are also worth considering, as they run in-browser but behave like a standalone app and can even operate when a network connection drops out for any reason.

Ultimately, responsive design is a good building block for a site but should not be the sole change made to accommodate mobile users.