A responsive website is one that has been designed and adapted to display correctly on all browsers and across different devices. It is basically a website that ensures all website visitors enjoy good user experience regardless of whether they are using a desktop or a mobile device.
Bounce Rate and Responsive Website: What’s the Relationship?
Bounce rate refers to the percentage of website visitors who leave a webpage without performing any action, such as clicking a link, buy or like the page. High bounce rates are often symptoms of more serious underlying problems such as a bad user experience. If visitors often abandon your web page withing the first few seconds of arrival, it is going to negatively impact not only your conversion rate but also your ranking on search engines.
According to Google stat, more than 50% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. That alone explains the importance of creating highly responsive websites that display correctly across devices.
On the top of the list why some websites experience high bounce rate is “non responsive website design”. Visitors tend to judge a website first by its design before making a go for its content. You should see Why Your Business Needs A Responsive Website.
Now imagine your website looks like this . . .
If you website looks anything near what we have there, It will suffice to say that you should expect a really high bounce rate . And even worse if your website does not have a mobile-friendly version.
At this stage, if you are not sure whether or not your website is responsive, do not worry at all. Further down this post, we’ll also talk about some efficient responsive website checker that allows you to view a simulated version of any website you want across various devices. If you feel like you still don’t get what the whole idea of a responsive website is about, you should take some time to view some of these responsive website examples to help you have a visual understanding.
After you’ve determined whether or not your website is responsive and you need a guide on how to make responsive website, we promise that you are also on the right track. Stay on this page and we’ll show you the latest responsive web design technique designers are using to make highly responsive websites.
How to make responsive website
Without further ado, let’s look at how to make a responsive website. There are two kinds of responsive web design techniques people often use for their websites.
1. Separate Versions Technique
Some people opt to make two different versions of their website in a bid to deliver a responsive website to their website visitors. One desktop version and a mobile version are often made available for use across desktop devices such as PC or MAC and mobile devices such as mobile phone and tablet respectively.
2. Media Query- Fluid Grid – Flexible Visuals Technique
Rather than create two different versions for the same website, web developers have come up with a one stop solution that solves the problem. This responsive web design technique involves the creation of one user friendly version of a website with capabilities to adjust for any screen size or device type.
To achieve this, web developers use a combination of three functionalities as follows:
- Media Queries
- Fluid Grids and Layouts
- Flexible Media.
1. Media Queries
Media queries use conditional statements to adjust a website’s design based on the type of device used to access the website. This functionality allows for the creation of a website that offers very good user experience across any device rather than creating separate versions of the same website.
2. Fluid grids and layouts
Fluid grids are created with CSS to make website columns automatically rearrange themselves according to the size of the user device or browser window.
Having a responsive website with fluid grids allows users on different screen sizes (such as 21-inch desktop, 13-inch laptop, 9.7-inch tablet or 5.5-inch mobile phone) to enjoy a uniquely tailored user experience on your website.
Also deploying fluid layouts on a website saves designers time and money. It makes it possible to update just one version of a website which will reflect across all devices as against having to update different versions individually.
3. Flexible visuals
Flexible visual in responsive website design is simply the use of codes to control rich media files from exceeding the size of a user’s screen. Flexible visual codes allow rich media files to adjust their sizes according to the size of their containers (screens).
In summary, the use of the 3 functionalities discussed above allows web designers to implement a responsive web design technique with capabilities to adapt across many devices.
Responsive Website Checker
A lot of website owners have become aware of the importance of a responsive website to internet marketing. After development, it is important that you check how your website layout appears and reacts to various screen sizes and device types. Even during development, designers often check responsiveness of websites across various devices before they can say the work is done. In order to make sure that everything is as responsive as possible, it’s best to use responsive website checker tools – we’re going to introduce you to the best 5 which we’ve experimented with and found to be very effective.
1. Am I Responsive?
This responsive website checker, Am I responsive allows users to virtually demonstrate the responsiveness of their website across four apple screens. Am I responsive viewports (screen resolutions) are as follows: Desktop: 1600 x 992px; Laptop: 1280 x 802px; Tablet: 768 x 1024px; Mobile: 320 x 480px.
Above is a virtual demonstration of Seomarketingmap.com responsive design using Am I responsive.
2. Responsivepx
This responsive website design testing tool allows you to select screen resolution on a virtual screen. It offers expandable height and width on its virtual screen up to 3,000px.
Above is a virtual demonstration of Seomarketingmap.com responsive design using Responsivepx.
3. Responsinator
Responsinator provides 6 different mobile devices simulations for any website. It offers different screen resolutions for Android, iPhone and iPad.
4. Mozilla Firefox Tool
Mozilla Firefox offers a responsive web design checker tool as part of its browser functionalities. To run a responsive design test on the site you are viewing, simply navigate Web Developer > Responsive Design View.
At this point, you will be able to adjust the site’s resolution to match the screen size of any device you want to test for. 
You can also adjust screen orientation to display in either portrait or landscape.
5. Google Resizer
Google Resizer allows you to test the responsive design of any website across three screen sizes – desktop, tablet and mobile phone. It also offers resolutions in both portrait (480 – 1600px) and landscape (360 – 1,024px).
Above is a virtual demonstration of Seomarketingmap.com responsive design using Google Resizer.
Conclusion
Internet usage is no longer what it was about a decade ago. Today, internet users are accessing the internet with different types of devices. Surveys have shown that more than 50% of global internet usage is carried out on mobile devices.
Always remember that the sole aim of building a responsive website is to increase your user experience and reduce bounce rate which in turn affect your conversion rate and also search engine ranking.
The need for responsive websites is simply a call for internet marketers to progressively enhance user experience to fit the various viewing contexts across users’ devices.
We hope this post on how to make responsive website has been of great help to you!