Is your website design truly responsive? Learn how to test responsive design of a website easily. Two simple methods to test responsive web design.
In this article, I will cover – What is responsive web design? How you can easily test responsiveness of your website or blog? Importance of responsive design layout and how to make your WordPress website responsive.
I will also outline some interesting facts that might be eye-opening for you if you are ignoring user experience of a large share of internet users who browse your website using mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, etc.
☲ Table of Contents
What is Responsive Web Design
In responsive web design, webpages are designed to look good and presentable on a variety of devices of different screen sizes without creating separate webpages (separate mobile website, etc.) for different screen sizes.
The basic characteristic of a responsive webpage is that it organizes the content well regardless of the screen size of the device. Such webpages/websites are called responsive webpages/websites.
Importance of Responsive Design Layout
For instance, you browse a website using your phone and the website does not look presentable (the design is broken or features are not working) on your phone. Or the content (including images, text, videos, etc.) of the website is not presentable on your phone screen.
Surely you will get off the website early. And look forward to searching for an alternative, right? So this is the first reason why you should have a responsive design for your website.
There are other reasons too —
- In 2022, globally 60% of internet users use a mobile phone to go to the internet says an article published in Statista.
- There is a large number of people who use more than one device (like a PC, tablet, mobile, etc.) to browse the internet. And there is a great chance that someone will browse your website using his PC too if his user experience was good with your website when he browses it using his phone and vice-versa.
Simply, if your website looks good on different devices, it’s a good sign to make some loyal readers. They will keep coming back to your website. - Mobile monetization is another major reason why you should have a responsive design layout for your website. If your website’s design adapts well to different screen sizes, it‘ll surely help to increase your mobile ad conversions. And thus increase overall revenue from the website.
- Everyone likes a fast-loading website. You can use a responsive web design approach to make your website load faster by tweaking the amount of content/features for different screen sizes.
- As I mentioned above responsive design not only helps to make loyal and returning readers. But it also contributes to increasing the overall number of visitors to your website. And improves the engagement time & bounce rate of the website too.
These are a few reasons why your website design should be responsive.
Now the question is, where and how you can test whether a website design is responsive or not?
How to Test Responsive Design of a Website Easily
It is quite a task to test your website by browsing it on different devices of different screen sizes, right?
Don’t worry, you don’t need to do that. There are easier ways to test a responsive design of websites and web pages.
There are two popular methods to test responsive web design:
- Online Responsive Web Design Testing Tool: mobile responsive checker
- Web Browser Developer Tool
#1 Online Responsive Web Design Testing Tool(s)
Responsive Design Test by TrulyBlogger – This tool is really light, fast, and accurate.
Using this responsive web design tester, you can precisely test responsive design of your website or blog, even on moderate internet speed.
#2 Web Browser Developer Tool
In this method, I’ll show you how to check responsiveness of website in Chrome.
Yes, you can use Google Chrome to Test Responsive and Device-specific Viewports of the website.
Step-by-step instructions to check responsive website in Chrome:
- Open the website in a new tab of Google Chrome.
- Keep the mouse pointer on the landing page of the website and right-click, you will see a menu.
- From right-click menu, click Inspect Element. Chrome Dev Tools Window will open.
- On Dev Tools Window locate the option called Toggle device toolbar, and click it.
- Clicking Toggle device toolbar will take you to Device Mode’s screen emulator.
- Using this screen emulator, you can test responsive and device-specific viewports of the website.
Want to read more about this Google Chrome feature? Here is an official article.
How to Make Your WordPress Website Responsive
You can make your WordPress website design responsive either using Responsive WordPress Themes or using WordPress plugins.
#1 Responsive WordPress Themes
There are plenty of responsive themes available in the market – be it WordPress theme directory or other reputed WP theme publishers. It is always recommended to use a WordPress theme by a reliable and reputable developer only. As a bad theme can ruin all of your effort to make a successful blog or website.
If really looking for a responsive WordPress theme, you must give GeneratePress Theme a try. GeneratePress offers a lightweight, SEO-friendly, responsive theme. Alternatively, you can go for Elegant Themes or Astra Theme both offer professional premium WordPress themes which are used and trusted by many WordPress users.
#2 WordPress Mobile Site Plugins
(I don’t recommend this method, use a responsive theme instead.)
A WordPress mobile site plugin makes WordPress theme (regardless of the responsive layout of the theme) layout responsive for mobile devices.
WPtouch Mobile Plugin, Jetpack, Duda Mobile Website Builder are the name few plugins to make your theme responsive. WPtouch Mobile plugin is a popular one and it offers decent customization options. If you are not sure how to install a WordPress plugin, check out this post – 3 Different Methods to Install WordPress Plugins Easily.
Why Choose the Responsive Theme Over the Plugin
It is better to use a responsive WP theme over a plugin. Because, in a responsive theme, the code responsible for responsive design is in the theme itself and integrated well with other theme code. As the whole code is written by the same publisher (team maybe).
On the other hand, WordPress site plugins are written for general use and may not integrate well with your current WordPress theme.
Here are 8 Quick Tips to Optimize WordPress Website for Mobile Users – Mobile Friendly Website
Final Thoughts
Responsive web design is awesome as it helps to improve user experience of your website’s visitors and it reduces efforts to develop a standalone mobile version for a desktop website.
Let me know about your experiences using Responsive Design Test by TrulyBlogger. Feel free to ask a question about the article via the comment section below. I‘ll be happy to help.