Is Your Website Responsive?

Many business owners may not even consider whether their websites are responsive, but in today’s internet, the answer may mean the difference between success and failure of their online business and overall web presence.

With that in mind, what does the term "responsive" mean in relation to your website?

When web developers talk about a website being "responsive across all platforms,” we’re discussing the coding of the website and its ability to format well across all platforms and devices. We mean the way the website looks visually on various screen sizes that make up today's collection of devices that people use to access the internet (i.e. widescreen HD desktop monitors, tablets, and smartphones…in both orientations of portrait and landscape modes).

As a web developer, I am asked to look at the websites of potential clients who are looking to see if their websites are up-to-date or need updating. The first thing I check is to see how the website formats on mobile devices like smartphones. Why is that important? As we all know, mobile smartphone use is increasing every day*, and many people use their smartphones to surf the internet and to purchase products online.

If your website isn’t responsive and optimized for mobile, you will miss out on potential mobile sales, especially if your website utilizes a shopping cart system. However, regardless of what type of website your business has and what functionality it utilizes, the website needs to look attractive and be usable on all types of modern devices used for accessing the internet. There have been instances where I have looked at websites that looked fine on an HD desktop monitor but were not remotely usable on a smartphone.

Here at WebWorm, we are WordPress developers. WordPress is a very powerful content management system that offers clients a state-of-the-art platform for their websites that is constantly being updated for security and functionality. We also utilize professional quality theme engines to build our client websites. The developers of modern high-quality themes make responsiveness and mobile optimization a top priority in all their coding.

Tony Culjis is the Director of Web Development at Webworm. If you want to learn more about this topic, or you want to find out how well your website ranks as far as being responsive and mobile optimized, please reach out. Whether you already have a website that you may want to update for responsiveness, or you need a new website built for your business, WebWorm offers services are that are professional, affordable, and with an unparalleled customer service.

*In the 4th quarter of 2018, 47.2% of the world’s internet traffic came from mobile devices. Source: Statista.

What is SEO?

It’s a common term thrown around by people with business websites who are concerned about their online presence, but many are a bit blurry on the details of the acronym SEO. All of us experience the daily barrage of emails and spam from SEO companies claiming they will get your website on the first page of Google in 30 days or less.

And most of us promptly delete these emails as we clean up our daily collection of digital junk mail. As a web developer, I’ve wondered if anyone actually falls for these claims. SEO spam emails represent a large portion of the 100 billion spam emails that are auto-generated on a daily basis.

In this article, I’d like to shed some light on the SEO world, simply as someone who works with clients that need help getting their website ranked as high as possible in Google. Yes, there are other search engines, but let’s face it...Google is currently the top site for SEO.

What is SEO?
SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization." It sounds straight-forward enough, but what this really boils down to is how well does a website rank in Google during organic searches. Rank is determined by the page a website shows up on, with the first page results having an excellent ranking.

Showing up on page 10 is not so good. Organic search results mean that one is not paying Google to promote a website. You can tell the difference between an organic listing versus a paid one, as the paid listing will note that it is an ad.

The processes involved in getting a website optimized for search engines is a lengthy topic well-beyond the scope of this article. However, I will say that to do it correctly will take a lot longer than 30 days! And of course, the idea that everyone’s website can be on the first page of Google for their niche is obviously not realistic.

The process can take 6-12 months to get momentum going, depending on how much competition there is within the niche and the geographic area an organization is targeting. Obviously larger metro areas present a greater SEO challenge than rural areas with smaller towns.

Even if a business is in a large city with heavy competition, it is still very important to make sure that a website has been SEO optimized. Over time the investment one has made in a website will eventually bear fruit in the form of passive lead generation.

For most business owners, one of the main reasons for having a website is to create more business opportunities, leading to more revenue! One of the primary aspects of maintaining a good ranking in Google search engines is content.

In real estate, the mantra is location, location, location. In the SEO world, the same could be said with the mantra “content, content, and more content.”

Although it can't be just any content, it must be original and relevant to the target audience. Google can tell if content has been duplicated or plagiarized from other websites and sources; there is no way to trick Google's algorithms. However, when one takes the time to do SEO correctly and with integrity, his or her website evolves into an extremely valuable asset that enables web presence to grow over time.

As a web developer, I understand that content is king when it comes to maintaining a website, which is why WebWorm encourages business owners to make a habit of continually adding fresh content to their website on a monthly basis...forever! More content creates the opportunity for potential landing pages where target audiences find services or products; an added benefit is increasing ranking in Google.

Here at WebWorm, we recommend a monthly plan for adding a steady stream of high quality, original content to your website regularly, along with the knowledge of how to optimize that content for SEO purposes. This is the recipe for a solid foundation to build your web presence.

Keep in mind that building a web presence should be one of the highest priorities when thinking about where to invest an advertising budget. Remember, unlike traditional advertising that ends when the ad campaign ends, the investment one makes in a web presence is an actual investment. It is an investment in an organization’s digital property, that it owns, and will continue to bring benefit long after the SEO work is completed.

Tony Culjis is the Director of Web Development at Webworm.