Say goodbye to the “one site fits all screen sizes” web development and design paradigm. According to the latest study conducted by the research firm Gartner, global PC sales decline by 1.2% in 2012 despite the much hyped launch of the Windows 8.

On the other end of the spectrum, another research by Gartner revealed that smartphones were up by 42.7% and a separate study by International Data Corporation (IDC) showed that the projected total sales for tablet devices in 2013 will breach the 170-million mark and is even predicted to outdo netbooks’ sales performance.

If you let these numbers speak for themselves, website design companies should hear loud and clear that the next gen SEO and SMO will be heavily anchored on responsive web designs.

SEO and SMO in a Post PC Era

According to tech media giant Mashable, they expect that mobile visitors will comprise more than 50% of their site’s total traffic by the conclusion of 2013. While this projection can vary from one industry to another, the point is mobile traffic is destined to gain momentum and capturing this on-the-go audience is crucial to success.

It was not too long ago that in order for a site to be optimized for the mobile audience, website design companies had to create specific layouts for different screen sizes across varying devices. Today, thanks to advancements in responsive web design tools and technologies, creating a website that automatically responds or adjusts to a specific screen size based on media queries.

Everything starts with proper coding. There are basically two approaches you can take in terms of responsive design. First, is to create layouts based on specifically identified screen size ranges. This is much simpler to do, but will only cover the most popular devices in a given time. The next approach is the fluid approach which takes into consideration percentages instead of the screen sizes. This is trickier and probably more expensive to do, but you are assured that your site is optimized for viewing for present gadgets and those that are yet to be released.

Why Can’t You Ignore Mobile in 2013

Different companies have different reason for not using responsive web design tools in their web development initiatives. Small businesses might say that they don’t need it because of their small operations while enterprises might say reason that they don’t see where mobile fits into their overall marketing strategy.

According to a presentation by Mary Meeker who is dubbed as the “The Queen of the Net,” 24% of all online shopping that place on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving and one of the peaks in the US shopping season) was done using a smartphone or a tablet. Whatever your business size is, tapping into website design companies to bring your mobile marketing to the next gen SEO and SMO by using responsive web design tools is a sound business decision.

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