There was a time when web designers could create sites solely for personal computer viewing. Then along came laptops. Tablets. Kindle. iPads. Smart phones. All screen resolutions had to be compatible. Designers started generating separate websites for all these different outlets. Today, responsive web design simplifies the process. It allows for a single design and development approach to reach all users.

It's increasingly important because the number of browsers, platforms and devices on which your business website has to function is still expanding. You don't want to have to rebuild a whole new site every time a tech company rolls out a new device.

At Go Media, our responsive web design team recognizes all this as a fundamental shift in how we build your site. It's time to stop thinking about your site in terms of simple pages and start thinking of it in terms of the whole system. Our experienced team of Cleveland web designers is equipped to incorporate responsive design into your new website or modify an existing site.

Utilizing responsive web design for mobile users not only paves the way for direct connection with your target audience, it also improves your search engine optimization (SEO). Competition for high-ranking spots on search sites is fierce because savvy marketers know it's one of the best means to reach customers quickly.

Search engines like Google and Bing have made it clear: Responsive web design is the preferred and recommended mobile configuration. Those who use it are likely to see a rankings boost. Some of the reasons search engines like responsive web design is because it:

• Improves user experience by making it easier to link and share your content with a single URL.
• Helps search engine algorithms more easily process information.
• Saves search engine crawling resources because the bot only needs to crawl the page once, rather than numerous times to capture all different versions of content.
• Allows search engines to index more of your content faster and more efficiently.

Of course, SEO can be something of a moving target. But businesses need to protect their web investment. Given that search engines have explicitly stated their preference for well-executed responsive web design, that's where it needs to start.

Responsive web design is also beneficial because it allows you to sidestep the engineering time and costs associated with creating and maintaining a separate mobile site. Additionally, it reduces the chances of common mistakes that all too often negatively affect mobile websites. These include snags like:

• Unplayable content
• Blocked CSS, JavaScript and image files
• Faulty redirects
• Mobile-only 404s
• Irrelevant cross links
• Small font size

These are problems that cause mobile users to bounce quickly away from your site. Those bounce rates affect your SEO ranking too.

Our Cleveland responsive web design team will work to assure Mobile Design is part of the complete package. All of our sites are developed fresh, clean, easy-to-navigate and functional on modern equipment such as smartphones and tablets powered by:

• Android
• iOS

The traditional notion of "going online" - using a desktop device with a large screen, keyboard, mouse and wires - is still relevant. However, for an increasing number of users, the reality of online experience looks much different.

In 2015, the Pew Research Center studied the issue, concluding almost two-thirds of Americans owned a smart phone and 1 in 5 relied almost solely on that phone to access information and services online. Those figures are growing by the day.

A comScore State of Online Retail report in 2015 revealed total digital commerce shot up 14 percent in a single year, racing ahead at a faster rate than the overall retail sector. In the first quarter of that year, digital commerce was up to 15 percent of total discretionary retail spending - the highest it's ever been. Further, mobile commerce growth is accelerating at a rapid clip, jumping 53 percent from just a year earlier and accounting for 15 percent of all digital commerce.

Improving user experience across the board is a must. Consider a recent Google analysis, indicating that if a website isn't compatible with smartphones, 6 in 10 visitors aren't going to recommend it. Plus, 4 in 10 said if they encountered a site that wasn't compatible with mobile devices, they would automatically switch to a competitor.

For businesses, non-profits and others just beginning to think about responsive web design, this represents a significant opportunity to expand your reach, improve user experience and boost your bottom line.