In an internet universe of literally billions of websites, one can see what is best described as a museum of technology just by surfing around. Try it, spend a few minutes just following links around and you will see a lot of different sites. Some will load very quickly and neatly, while others will struggle to render a readable web page for your browser. In just a few short years, technology has greatly improved in how web pages are served for the viewing audience. Keeping up with these changes can be a struggle for webmasters, and can be seen on the internet, a challenge that many webmasters have yet to conquer.

The most current change that is rapidly becoming a standard is updating your site to what is known as a ‘responsive’ theme. Basically, the theme will recognize the browser and its settings and render the site to that specific device. Long gone are the days of one size fits all for websites. Mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, now all receive the same quality viewing experience. Automatically.

So why is it so important to have a responsive theme? Well, let’s start with the most important reason; because Google says you need to have it. That is right. Google has very clearly declared that sites need to upgrade to a responsive technology straight away. Further, Google has implied that the site rankings of non-responsive sites will suffer. With mobile viewing now, as of July 2015, making up over 60% of website traffic, this one issue should be a call to action for a site owner. Secondly, look at a non-responsive website on a tablet or mobile phone. Try shopping and adding something to the shopping cart. Try navigating through to a check out screen. It will not be long before the hassle drives you away to a competing website that is responsive. Lesson here, your conversions are going to be punished. Finally, as you can imagine, your engagement metrics will suffer as a non-responsive site. Page views, time on page, every metric that matters will go down. Is that what you want for your business?

The good part is that there are plenty of resources to help you perfect your update. The best one is from Google. Log in to your webmaster account and front and center will be a test widget for your site. Once you update you site, run it through the widget and Google will let you know immediately if it is rendering to their satisfaction. Once it approves the site, you are well on your way to keeping up with the most recent standards. But don’t relax just yet. Another technology shift is right around the corner. Watch this space for the update.