Take a page from MTV: reevaluate your web design

Not all sites are created equal

If you use a tablet or a mobile phone to surf the web, you’ve probably noticed that some sites are much easier to use than others. Some sites are just harder to read and navigate through, requiring a lot of scrolling and resizing. If your business’s website isn’t very compatible with tablets or mobile phones, you are going to miss out on potential customer views, interactions and social media shares as users get frustrated trying to navigate your site.

Sites created with responsive web design (RWD) are optimized for the user’s experience across different types of devices. Responsive web design allows the layout of the site to change depending on which device is being used to view it, and uses a fluid grid so that images and text boxes are proportional.

MTV went responsive and the results were remarkable

The web designers at MTV recently restructured their video and news pages using responsive web design, with remarkable results. After redesigning their video page, the site saw a 92 percent increase in visits via mobile devices, a 55 percent increase in the number of pages each user views per visit, and a 297 percent increase in the amount of time spent during each visit.

Perhaps most importantly, MTV saw a 246 percent increase in social media referrals from the site. Web marketing experts contend that while site views are important, social media engagement is even better. It shows that users are more than passively reading the site, but are actually interacting with the site and potentially increasing your customer base by spreading the word for you.

Site visits went up 151 percent

MTV also redesigned their news site, resulting in a 151 percent increase in site visits, a 137 percent increase in time spent per visit, and a whopping 564 percent increase in social referrals. All of these improvements indicate that responsive web design has helped make MTV a site centered on social engagement, rather than searches alone. All of this means more interactions and a wider audience for the site.

The conclusion is obvious: the more responsive your website, the more your customers will engage. Hats off to the MTV web design team.

#GoResponsive