Responsive web design is one of the new buzzwords in the industry, and before we tell you why it is important, below is an explanation as to what it actually is.

“Responsive Web Design is about using CSS and HTML to resize, hide, shrink, enlarge, or move the content to make it look good on any screen” – via www.w3schools.com

Essentially that means that the website will resize itself according to the screen size you are viewing it on, so if you are on a desktop with a large viewing area, a tablet or a phone, images will resize and columns with text will shift to suit the screen size.

Before responsive web design became the industry standard, WordPress website resizing was mostly done via special plugins (such as the excellent WP Touch). Such plugins can also be a great way of making your current website mobile friendly if you don’t want to completely redesign your not-so-old website.

Whilst using plugins to make your WordPress website mobile friendly can be a great temporary solution, it is still best practice to have a totally responsive WordPress website that looks and works great across any screen size.

Having a responsive WordPress website can also help with your Google rankings because – “… Google Search will be expanding its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in Google Search results”

So if your website is out of date and or old, now might be a good time to have it remade with a responsive theme.