You already know that responsive design is a must-have for any website. Now, it’s time to create a responsive site of your own to ensure your content looks good on any screen.
A quick refresher: responsive design refers to web pages that “automatically appear in their optimized form on all devices,” according to HubSpot. That means that no matter how a user accesses your website, whether they are browsing on a two-inch phone screen or a 12-inch laptop, your site’s content will display correctly.
Fortunately, you don’t need any technical expertise to create a responsive website on WordPress.com. Below, we’ll walk through the steps to ensure that your site is responsive on every device.
Why Should You Care If Your Website is Responsive?
To use your website as an effective marketing tool for your brand, it must offer a great user experience (UX). UX is used to describe the overall experience that your website offers its visitors. If fans have positive experiences when exploring your website, they are more likely to return and use your services.
You can work towards a robust UX by regularly publishing helpful content and incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) tactics. But one of the best ways to make your site user-friendly is ensuring that it’s compatible across different browsers and devices.
Website responsiveness matters because people who visit your site may access it from their desktop computers, mobile phones, or tablets and use various browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. Websites that are not compatible with all devices or browsers may look jumbled, disorganized, or might not display at all for some viewers.
Different browsers use different languages to interpret the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code that makes up websites. While some content and images may display perfectly on one browser, they might appear distorted or not appear at all on another.
Here are a few tips to make sure your visitors get a great experience no matter what device or browser they might use.
Choose a Responsive Website Theme
Thousands of WordPress themes are available for self-hosted WordPress sites, many of which are in the WordPress.org theme repository. However, a large number of those themes are not responsive, so you need to select a theme carefully.
However, if your site is hosted at WordPress.com, you’ll be happy to note that all WordPress.com themes and templates are built to be mobile-responsive and cross-browser compatible, allowing you to focus on the front-end details that will draw users to your site, including image size, file formats, readability, and the layout of your content. With a theme provided by WordPress.com, there’s no wrong choice — no matter which theme you choose, you can rest assured that it will load beautifully on mobile phones, tablets, and computer screens alike.
Keep Your Navigation Concise
When creating menus that display well on a responsive website, less is more. Lengthy menus might be readable on your laptop, but they can be challenging to navigate for users visiting your site from smaller devices. Simplify your menus to keep your navigation brief and easily scannable for users on all screen resolutions.
Make Your Site Searchable
A Google study found that a functional site search is one of the most important elements of a mobile-friendly site. Beyond your site’s standard search bar, use blocks and plugins to help visitors quickly locate the information they’re searching for.
Customize Carefully
If your website features a number of custom elements, such as unique images or custom font families, your personalized settings may translate poorly on different screens. Use CSS media queries to apply different sets of rules to custom elements based on conditions like browser width or device type. That way, all your customizations will come through at the proper resolution on all screen sizes.
Pay Attention To Forms
If your site features custom contact forms, check that they are mobile-friendly.
Avoid allowing pop-up forms to take up the entire screen, as this can make for an unpleasant user experience on mobile devices.
Image Optimization is Crucial
Image size is an important factor to consider when optimizing your site’s responsiveness. Extremely large images can slow down the speed at which the pages on your site load, leading to poor user experiences.
Different WordPress.com themes show different maximum image sizes depending on the website’s specific layout, but a good rule of thumb is to ensure that your images are smaller than 1230 x 820 pixels. The file sizes of your images can also affect page-load times, so you’ll want to reduce the file size in a photo editor like iPhoto or Photoshop before uploading it.
You can do this by choosing the proper file format. JPEGs are the standard file format for most images and can be compressed without altering the image quality. GIFs are another option if you want to upload logos, icons, and simple images without a lot of text. PNGs, another file format for photos, tend to have larger file sizes. Sticking to JPEGs is often your best option.
Keep Everything Readable
Readability and content layout are also essential components of a user-friendly website. Integrating white space into your website’s layout, using easily readable fonts, and organizing your content into short paragraphs, especially for mobile users, can improve your site’s readability. Limiting the content that mobile users see can also make the site easier to navigate.
Be Proactive and Test
These days, users expect a browsing experience that’s seamless across their different devices. Double-check your site to ensure that it is fully responsive. Preview your site on different browsers and devices to guarantee that it’s showcasing your business in the best way possible. This will give potential customers an incentive to buy your products and services, as your site will be easier to navigate. Remember, your website only gets one chance to make a first impression.
A Responsive Website is a Great User Experience
Creating a responsive website is essential for providing a stellar user experience for your visitors. WordPress.com makes it easy to create a responsive website by providing themes that are all responsive from the start. Keeping your content concise, making your site searchable, and being careful with customization are all essential steps to ensure that your website is responsive. Optimizing image size, readability, and content layout are also important factors to consider. Finally, double-checking your site on different browsers and devices can help you ensure that your site is fully responsive and ready to attract visitors.
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