Responsive web design provides a handful of benefits for businesses. It helps business owners to reach out to their potential customers all around the world, on a variety of devices. A responsive website, customizes itself to conform to the criteria of a user’s device, regardless of the model, screen size, specifications or settings. A few of the advantages of using responsive design are:

1. Google Loves Responsive Design

Google publicly promotes the use of responsive web design, as it matches with their high standards of quality content and clear link structure. Responsive web design uses a single URL and the same HTML code; allowing Google to track, index and organize content from websites easily. It uses only CSS to manage a webpage that is displayed on a particular device.

In addition, Google recommends using a responsive web design because a single URL makes it easier for users to interact, link, and share content from a website they like. Additionally, users do not need to rely on a redirection to access an optimized view of their site. This decreases the loading time of a website tremendously.

2. More Traffic From Mobile And Tablet Audience

According to statista, nearly 52% of all global web traffic came from mobile devices in the third quarter of 2017. That is more than half of all Internet traffic. Yes, you heard it right! Many predict that this trend will rise to 63.4% in 2019.

Creating a responsive website takes less time than building a separate mobile application in addition to a standard desktop website. Responsive websites are built to tailor their content accordingly to the size of the screen and graphics, they provide you with the best opportunity to reach a large number of potential customers.

In this way, you can increase your consumer exposure and generate more traffic to your website, increasing your brand awareness and revenue as well.

3. Improve User Experience

A responsive website results in a more enjoyable user experience. If your audience finds it hard to navigate or use the site because of poor quality design or irregular content formats, they will abandon your site. Google states that if a user accesses the mobile version of the website and gets frustrated, there is a 61 percent chance that they will redirect themselves to another website.

However, if your website unfolds and reacts to a change in screen size, visitors can access menus, links, buttons, or forms easily. As a result, the user experience your website provides improves and your visitors spend more time on your website.

4. Cost-Effective And Time Saving

Before the introduction of the responsive web design concept, web developers had to create multiple versions of the same site for different devices. That was a difficult task and took significant efforts during not only the development phase but also when updates were required, because of the duplication of tasks to make updates on each version of the website. Earlier, a mobile version required a separate mobile codebase.

With the evolution of latest technologies, the responsive web design concept was born. Today web developers are able to create a single website that adjusts to all screen sizes, has only one version of source codes, and a single CMS to update web pages. This significantly reduces the time and cost of a project.

5. Better Loading Time With Low Bounce Rate

As we all know, many of us use mobile devices for short spans, and carry out in depth research from our pc’s or laptops. Studies find that a mobile visitor leaves a web page that takes more than three seconds to load.

In this case, an optimized and responsive mobile website offers the visitor a much better user experience. As a result, they are more likely to stay longer and explore different sections of your site. If your site is slow and unresponsive, it is much harder to keep the visitor engaged, therefore, increasing the chance of abandonment. A well-optimized page not only loads fasts, it also keeps users engaged, resulting in lower website bounce rate.

6. Enhance SEO

Another great benefit of Responsive Web Design is an improved search engine ranking of a website. Today, with so much competition on the net, responsive web design is as important as search engine optimization is, for delivering high-quality content.

As of April 2015, Google considers the responsiveness of your website as one of the signals that determine your site’s rank on the search engine results page. Google webmaster trends analyst, Pierre Farr, says that Google prefers websites that use responsive design instead of a mobile template for better SEO.

If your site does not respond well when it is viewed on a mobile, the search engine giant will place your website lower on the results page, and vice versa, if your site passes the mobile device test it would rank higher on the results page.

Conclusion:

As you can see, responsive web design is the trend of today’s marketplace. Creating responsive websites has many benefits for your business. With the rise in the use of smartphones, the responsiveness of the website is crucial if you want to stay ahead of your competitors. If you are planning to make your site responsive on all devices, QualDev – an ecommerce website design company has the expertise to help you achieve this goal. You can also check out the best Web Design Tips to Improve User Experience here.

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Here are 7 Web Design tips to improve user experience on your website:

1. Make Your Website Design Elegant

As soon as someone clicks on a website, it creates an impression in their mind that they then use to judge whether to continue or leave the website. This decision is based on how the user perceives the design of a website. If the visitor does not find what they see and read appealing, they leave your website, never to return.

Websites should have an elegant homepage that provides easy navigation, fast loading time and consistent color schemes. Make your website user-friendly. Your visitors will be more likely to become paying customers and returning visitors. A website can be made user friendly by 

Responsive design: For a perfect look on all devices, irrespective of whether they are viewed on smartphones or the screen of a desktop. A website should be simple without tiring your reader’s eyes.

Fonts: it is advised to use easy-to-read fonts to provide readers with the value they need.

Eye-catching images: Graphics summarize text and help visitors to process information quickly and easily.

2. Optimize Website Loading Time

A fast loading webpage is key to providing a great customer experience. When a visitor encounters poor web design and extremely low loading speeds, they leave the website instantly because there are just too many other options available to wait around on one.

A study by Stanford shows that 75% of Internet users judge the credibility of a business based solely on the structure and quality of its website. According to an infographic from Kissmetrics, if a website takes 4 seconds or more to load, it has already lost 25% of its visitors.

If loading a site takes more than 4 seconds, especially on a mobile device, it is all over. So, make sure your website loads surprisingly fast. Ideally, a website should load within 3-4 seconds.

3. Optimize Your Website For Mobile Devices

The way people surf the Internet has changed a lot. Over the years, the number of users accessing the Internet on a desktop computer has dropped significantly. A growing number of people access the Internet using their mobile devices. Today, more than 61.2% of users use a mobile device for shopping and surfing the internet. 

When you build your website, make sure to optimize it for mobile users. Otherwise, you will not only lose traffic, but you also lose your business too. The design of your website should be appealing and carried out in a way that ensures it visually matches the size/shape of the screen wherever it appears. The most responsive websites not only adapt to new screen sizes, they are also intuitive and easy to navigate.

4. Create Scannable Content

According to a survey by the Nielsen Norman Group, only 16% of users read articles word by word online, while 79% of users just take a close glance at the content on a page. You can improve your customers experience by making it easier to analyze your content. You can divide the text into shorter paragraphs and use headings, bullets, and lists wherever possible.

When you create a website using WordPress, you can install a visual editor, such as Divi Builder or Thrive that you can then use to format content as they provide customizable panels and function grids.

Avoid using jargon or language that is hard to understand. Your articles should be easy to read and contain everyday vocabulary. Claims must be linked to credible sources that allow users to examine a particular topic if they wishes to.

5. Include A Review And Testimonial Section

People are social beings with emotions. Seeing others sharing their opinion encourages them to share their opinions too. Make sure to add a review and testimonial section while designing your website.

Testimonials and reviews show visitors that they are not alone in the queue, other people have visited the website before them and were happy with the services they received. This gives new customers a boost to their confidence, encouraging them to choose your service. You can also add a section for best-sellers if you have a handful of products. This helps customers make better decisions while choosing their perfect product.

6. Offer Value With Newsletters

E-mail marketing is a great tool that you can use to build a long-lasting relationship with your customers. Use newsletters to offer something valuable to your customers or visitors, such as a discount coupon or access to premium content on your website, not available to the public.

For example, if you are running a GYM, you can offer subscribers free training plans and nutrition tips through your Newsletter. Many online clothing brands, including Nike and Adidas, offer 10-15% off coupons when a new user signs up for their mailing list. To create a credible newsletter you can use popular e-mail marketing services for small and medium businesses such as MailChimp, Drip and Aweber.

7. Improve Your Customer Service

You need to treat your website just like a traditional company and ensure you provide good customer service. Make sure that all your contact information, such as e-mail address and phone numbers are visible on all pages of your website. This will give your customers the opportunity to stay in touch with you if they have questions or problems regarding the product they have purchased. You can also use a live chat tool to get access to enhanced support.

Conclusion

In this article, we have mentioned all the points necessary to Improve user experience and effective Web Design. If you are looking for an e-commerce website design company that takes care of all these points, you can checkout QualDev Inc.

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• An Outdated Design

Like houses and malls, people want to be a website whose design is current and appealing. There are designs that will put off visitors automatically. These designs are at times hard to read and make the presentation of your content less appealing. When given an option, visitors will abandon and leave your website for another. Update the design of your website to provide room for new plugins and attractive features. Avoid templates that are generic and fail to provide you with a chance to customize your page.

• Content that is Difficult to Read

Internet readers have a lower concentration span than people who read books. Your digital marketing strategy will fail if the content on your website proves difficult to read. Draft content that is simple, clear and precise. It should be relevant to the subject of your website. The presentation of content on your website should be in the best format possible. This calls for simple sentences, headings, and subheadings. Use bullets and numbers to make it easier to follow your story. Where proses are used, make the sentences and paragraphs simple. Readers want to extract information as fast as possible. If the content is presented haphazardly, finding relevant information will be a huge challenge.

• Too Many Ads

It is difficult to tell advertisers that you do not need their money. However, do not prioritize the need to advertisers over the needs of your readers. Make a decision to restrict the number of ads to avoid overwhelming your readers. Too many ads will crowd a page and make it difficult for a reader to focus on the content of your article. It gets worse when the ads pop up over content and the visitor has no control over what to do with these ads. Restrict these ads to maintain traffic over time.

• Auto-Play Videos on Your Site

Auto-play videos are a real turn-off. Visitors may feel that you are forcing them to consume content and ads that are not even relevant to their needs. Visitors should have the right to click on videos that they deem relevant to them. Some videos have their controls hidden. This means that the visitor does not have control over when to stop the video or control the volume, on screen size and such other elements. Work with specialist SEO services to develop a strategy for videos that will work for your clients. Do not abandon videos, because, they remain the most interactive way to communicate with clients.

• Registration Requirements

It is common to ask visitors to provide personal information for your marketing strategies. However, you cannot force them to provide this information. Asking for information should be a natural act that is also voluntary. Forcing visitors to register will prompt them to abandon your page. Conversion rate experts recommend an optional registration process. This is one where the visitor has a choice to register if they want. In case it is mandatory to register, there must be benefits accrued from the registration. They could include receiving a newsletter, future recognition and low prices, or other such offers. Beyond abandoning your site, visitors will not return if they find hindrances while navigating.

• Poor Navigation Map

Every website should have a reception desk. The reception area helps the visitor find their way around your website. Once they land on a page, it should be easy for them to find information that they need. This information may be present on pages like those for services, sales, news, trends and the contact us page among others. There are pages that should be easy to find like those that provide information about services, your website, and business and your contact information. If a customer finds it difficult to locate information or pages they need, he or she will never return to your site. The best digital marketing strategy is to develop an effective navigation map that simplifies access to information on your website. Create a map at the initial landing page from where visitors can access pages with a single click.

• Generic Sites

Branding is as important online as in the real world. A website needs to have a personality. Improper branding affects the perception visitors have of your brand. They are looking for a website that looks like the brand they know. Visitors expect High-end brands to have sophisticated websites. Experts in SEO services will help you develop a website that projects your brand perfectly. Such a website uses images and colors that are familiar to your customers. This makes it easy for them to identify the information and services you provide through your website. The character of a website can be determined by the categories of goods and services, pages available, colors, graphics, and overall experience, among other elements. Work with specialists to give your website a character that is similar to that of your brand.

• Slow Loading Speed

Slow page loading is an issue that will cause you to lose even the most loyal customers. The average waiting period for a website to load is usually two seconds. This should be both on a computer as well as on mobile. If the site fails to load within three seconds, most visitors will abandon it. Customer satisfaction falls with every second that they are forced to wait. According to conversion rate experts, optimizing the load speed of your web pages should be a priority for all website owners. Work with a web host who can guarantee excellent speeds. Do not use too many images and graphics as they can make your content heavy and cause it to load slowly. By improving the load speed of pages, you will retain most visitors that land on your site.

There are many other reasons people abandon your website, some of which are unique to the site. Abandonment can and will slow down your digital marketing strategy. The secret is to work with seasoned SEO services to develop a website and strategy that will keep visitors to your site engaged for the longest time possible. The likelihood of visitors returning increases when they have a reason to spend more time on your website.

The post Why Visitors Abandon Your Website and How to Retain Them appeared first on QualDev.

A website provides a platform from which a brand can connect to consumers, display their products and services and keep the online audience informed about the latest happenings at their company.

A website is an integral medium to promote your business and reach people across the globe. If your website is difficult to navigate and provides a poor user experience, it can affect your brand negatively.

Check out here some of the effective design tips to improve user experience and engagement on your website:

Create a responsive version

Smartphone users and iPad users are increasing day by day. It is important for a brand to create a responsive or mobile-friendly website. People love to browse the web on their phones when they want to look for products or services they require.

If your website does not function properly on mobile phones, it leaves a negative effect on your brand. There is always a requirement for responsive web design so that your website runs properly across all electronic devices.

Also, using more mobile friendly plugins provides consumers with an enriching browsing experience and can lead to a greater amount of revenue.

Improve page load time

When an online user visits your website, they expect the page to load quickly. A page that loads slowly is a cause for frustration, and it might lead visitors to leave your site before they even purchase your product.

So, remember to check the speed of the pages on your site and see whether they work on all devices like laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. The site should load fast across all platforms and offer online users a good browsing experience.

So, ask your web development company to work on improving load speed rates to lower bounce rates and increase sessions.

Simplify your website navigation process

It is very important for a brand to simplify the navigation process on their website. Visitors often find a website’s navigation process to be very complicated.

As a result, they leave the site never to return. So, try to make the navigation process as simple as you can so that users can browse through the website without any hassle.

Try to keep your navigation intuitive, make your labels descriptive and try not to have more than seven menu items.

Usage of white space

It has often been seen that business owners think that too much of white space on a website is a big no-no! They think that a website should be packed with as much information as possible.

However, market research has revealed a very different story altogether. White spaces around headings and titles have a positive influence on user attention. It also gives webpage a fresh, open and modern look.

So, as a brand owner, it is important for you to understand this and explain this to UI or UX design company you hire to develop your site.

Create an impressive home page

The homepage is a summarized version of your entire site. Online users will look at this page when they visit your site for the first time.

It is the entryway to your website and most users observe this page to determine whether they would navigate further on your website, or not. Websites with the best UX are easy to follow and simplistic in nature.

Their design is not overwhelming and is yet good enough to impress online users at the first chance. The home page should have a design comprising of subheadings, short paragraphs containing sentences, large texts, and bullet points to enhance user engagement as well as conversions.

Define clear call to action

Apart from having a responsive web design version of your website, it is important for you to have the proper call to action that guides user behavior. A call to action button on your homepage is always helpful for increasing conversion rates on your website.

Reputed SEO services provider suggest that instead of a text link, a call to action button can increase conversion rates to a considerable extent.

If you wish that the call to action you use should be game-changing, then make sure to use words like “discover’, “start” or “learn” in it.

Use bullet points

Bullet points, headlines and any sort of numbered lists are always helpful in capturing user attention. This is a great way to provide all the information visitors require quickly and efficiently.

You can always get creative with bullet points by using icons and images that would stress on the point you are trying to make and to stick to the tone your brand sets.

Use realistic and relevant images

A photo, video, or a GiF is something we all love to see. The use of realistic stock photos is more likely to draw attention to a page.

According to research, users spend 10% more time to look at the pictures on the “about us” page rather than reading the page content.

So, when you are giving a UX design company the responsibility of developing your website, ask them to incorporate great visuals for better user engagement. Also, custom illustrations are always a great idea to improve user experience and engagement at the same time.

When compared to regular stick images, customized illustrations have proved to be helpful in keeping visitors on your site.

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