Responsive websites - why they're important

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If you've got a website that's a few years old and have been thinking about refreshing it, you should probably think a bit harder and stop putting it off. Chances are the website isn't 'responsive' - which means when someone visits it on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet, they see a miniature version of the main site - complete with tiny menus - that needs a lot of pinching and zooming to navigate. This is bad news for your visitors because it's fiddly.

Worse, Google really doesn't like it. In fact, starting last year, if people search for your website using a mobile device and your site isn't responsive, you will slowly start to slip down the search engine's list of results; and you'll be replaced by any of your competitors whose sites are responsive.

What's a responsive site? It's one that takes into account the different amounts of real estate that a mobile device has compared with a desktop computer, that has an interface you can tap and swipe, instead of clicking with a mouse, and that maybe adjusts the actual content that's displayed so as to serve up a condensed version of the main website that's more suited to being viewed on a small device.

Unless you specifically request it, all our websites are responsive and will look great and work well on mobile devices, so if you've got an old site that needs a refresh, why not get in touch to see about ringing the changes? Your visitors will thank you. And so, in its own weird opaque way, will Google.