You may have heard a lot about responsive websites recently if you keep up on internet news, but what exactly is a responsive website?

A responsive website is a site that responds to the platform or the size of screen that is viewing the website by displaying the content in the most legible way. We have all tried to look at a website on our mobile phones in the past where we have had to scroll left and right and up and down trying to see the part of the screen we need an know how frustrating this can be. Well if the site was responsive this would not have been a problem as the content would have re-sized itself to fit the mobile screen and been perfectly legible.

Responsive websites also re-size to fit tablets or iPads as well as mobile devices, so that what ever the device you are using to view the site the site will respond accordingly and display the content in the most appropriate way.

This all sounds great but why should I bother having a responsive website? Well for 2 reasons, firstly it gives the website viewer the best experience and if they have a good experience viewing your site then they are more likely to use or buy from you. Secondly Google will penalise you for not having a mobile friendly site. Actually thats not quite true, it does not penalise you but it will just not include you site in mobile searches if you don’t have a site that can be viewed on mobile devices properly. Both great reasons to have a responsive website!