What is a responsive website? A responsive website is one where the layout of a web page is changed based on the viewpoint that a user of a particular device has. The web page layout is then accessed by the user through a responsive web design. In simple terms, this is where the browser gets information about the width and height of a web page based on its current viewport.
Now let us see how to make a responsive website in less than five minutes. You can start by testing out the site on a smaller screen, like a phone. If you can see the elements properly on small view, you can go ahead and make the necessary changes. The other option is to make grid and minuscule elements bigger to ensure that they properly fit on the small screen size.
To make responsive website more attractive, you need to use fluid grids. With fluid grids, images load faster and the overall look and feel of the site becomes smoother. You can create a flexible text alignment in a smaller size to make it look more compact. The final step is to make sure that the images load fast to reduce bandwidth costs and maximize satisfaction of users.
To cater to various screen sizes across different devices, web designers have now started using portable viewpoints to provide a preview of what the site will look like on a larger device. These portable viewports are in effect responsive websites, only they do not respond to the current device size. This way, you can test your layouts across various screen sizes and compare them to achieve best results. In case you cannot make the necessary changes in HTML, you can just use portable viewports to ensure that you get the best results across all the devices.
Many people assume that if a website is not viewable on their smartphone or tablet, it will not be SEO friendly. However, this is not true. A responsive website can be viewed on almost all mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, and even the latest desktop computers. Thus, if you want to ensure maximum visibility and success, make sure that your website is viewable on as many devices as possible.
In order to create a fluid layout that responds to various device widths, web developers often use CSS. However, this method is not always effective when it comes to mobile responsiveness. Therefore, web developers nowadays also use JavaScript frameworks like Foundation or Flex to create a fluid layout that can respond to the size of the device.