David DeMambro says, “More than ever before, people are relying on their mobile devices for web browsing. In fact, a recent study from Hitwise found that almost 60% of U.S. online searches are conducted via mobile, and according to Litmus, 56% of emails were opened on mobile devices in April 2016. With so many potential customers opening emails on mobile, it’s essential that marketers optimize their sends for tablets and smartphones in addition to desktop computers. Luckily, Google has made that easier with their announcement that Gmail will begin supporting emails created with responsive... [...]

Talia Wolf says, “Allow me to start with a quick summary of this article: There’s a 270% gap in conversions between desktop and mobile, because mobile websites suck and we’re all doing it wrong. (Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll explain why and what needs to be done to fix this.) At its essence, responsive design is supposed to make a cross-device world a more seamless experience by adapting your desktop design to a smaller mobile screen. Unfortunately, condensing all that desktop content into such a small screen has the exact opposite effect — it’s actually... [...]

Ted Schadler says, “My colleague and coauthor Julie Ask and I are watching with dismay as company after company shrinks its desktop website down to a small screen using responsive web design (RWD) techniques so it fits on – but isn’t optimized for – smartphones. Companies have delightedly embraced responsive web design as the one-size-fits-all solution to mobile, tablet, and desktop sites. In a recent survey of digital business professionals, we found that 93% are using, piloting, or planning to pilot responsive web design. That sounds great on paper. After all, RWD is a very practical... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Brands that have adopted responsive email design are receiving many more clicks on the content inside their messages, according to a recent report from Yesmail. The report was based on data from millions of emails sent by Yesmail customers in 4Q15, as well as data from previous quarters. More than half of all opens in 4Q15 occurred on mobile devices both for brands that used responsive email design and for those that did not, the analysis found. However, mobile clicks accounted for less than half of total clicks for brands that sent no responsive messages; in contrast, mobile... [...]

Baer says, “History repeats itself once again. In the past, companies didn’t have websites. Then, this thing called the internet hit the scene, and the world saw a relatively quick mass-movement toward marketing businesses online. Why the change? Because existing on the internet became a standard. Everyone was there. And if you weren’t, you were losing to competitors who were. The same plot has rung true with mobility and multi-device support for websites and cloud-based applications. We are at an “essentialness” point, as Google has made it crystal clear that websites should be responsive... [...]

Abraham Nord says, “Most marketers now accept the importance of having a mobile strategy for ad landing pages, but which way should you go? Currently, there are three widely accepted methods to make web pages work on mobile devices: responsive design, dynamic serving and maintaining separate mobile URLs. In short, responsive design utilizes a fluid layout which changes and adapts to whatever the visitor’s screen size happens to be; in other words, mobile and desktop visitors are served the exact same URL/content, it just changes by responding to the size of the screen, device and browser. The... [...]

Will DeKrey says, “You’ve weathered Mobileggedon. You’re confident that your website and blog will look great on mobile devices and that Google’s algorithm change won’t hurt your search listings. Congrats! You’ve survived this skirmish … but it’s not going to be the last. The algorithm change is evidence Google knows it has to surface websites that painlessly get users what they need at the time that they need it. Google doesn’t want to send mobile users to websites that provide a frustrating browsing experience — that would damage Google’s promise... [...]

Susan Solomon says, “When Google announced that mobile-friendliness will influence a site’s ranking on search results pages, the need to move to responsive design was never clearer. And, although designers have been quick to change their ways, not enough has been said about the impact of responsive design on copywriters. Yes, copywriters, those wielders of winsome words. We still exist and we spend a lot of time contemplating how our expressive text can best complement those wonderful graphics. We know from reading social trends that users don’t like to read too much of what... [...]

Drew Hendricks says, “As of last year, more people are using their smart devices to browse the Web instead of computers. Due to the change in information medium, it’s important for businesses to create a responsive website that meets the needs of its consumers through a page that can be displayed fully and comfortably no matter what screen size is accessing it. By making your website responsive, you make your business’s information more convenient and therefore more accessible to anyone searching for it. What Is Responsive? Responsive means that a website naturally adjusts to... [...]

Cameron Soojian says, “Google often offers advice to web designers and developers so that they can optimize their websites for the search engine’s algorithms and for SEO purposes. Recently, Google finally took a stance on a hot topic: Responsive Web Design (RWD). But what is Responsive Web Design? Wikipedia defines it as “an approach to web design aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).” The main... [...]