What is Mobile-Responsive web design? And Why does it matter?

What is mobile-responsive web design?

So you're researching websites, and you're wondering what it means for a website to be mobile responsive.

A website is considered mobile responsive when it can be viewed on many different devices, specifically mobile devices like phones and tablets. Mobile responsive web design aims to deliver the site's content in a way that is functional and aesthetically pleasing.

Technically speaking, this means that certain elements of the website are programmed to behave differently at different screen sizes. Things like buttons, form fields, the line-breking in paragraphs all adjust as you change the size of the screen.

[GIF - screen changing as breakpoint changes]

Aesthetically speaking, it means the website looks good and feels good when you check it on your phone.

Does my website need to be mobile-responsive?

The short answer is yes, in 2022 needs to be mobile responsive. If it's not, you could be losing major customers, clients, donors, or subscribers.

Mobile use is only growing in recent years, and current estimates from Globalstats suggest that more than 52% of all US web traffic comes from mobile. That number goes up to 59% globally.

[img - screenshot from Globalstats]

With more than half the world using their phones and tablets to navigate the web, having a website that's not mobile-friendly could be costing you.

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How do I know if my site is mobile-responsive?

Simply looking at a website from a mobile device is usually a pretty good test of whether the site is built to be mobile responsive.

If the website looks like a mini version of the desktop site, but on your phone, with tiny, tiny text - It's most likely not mobile responsive. If elements look wonky and out of proportion, if it's hard to navigate, or if clicking on buttons and links gets you nowhere - this may be another sign your site is not mobile responsive.

Check if your website is mobile-friendly with Google

Google offers a simple tool to check if a website is mobile responsive. It's called the "Mobile-Friendly Test" and all you need to do is enter the URL of the site you want to check.