Turns out new research is just coming out that shows - using data - that responsive sites do not convert as well on the desktop compared with regular desktop sites.
Basically, the industry jumped the gun on this trend and site after site is going downhill, or having to roll back changes as users drop off.
None of my actual clients want responsive sites - with one notable exception being a person from a dev background who sells on ebay and amazon and already gave up on the actual website for sales - and no wonder as it is a code bloated wordpress responsive site.
I figure this really comes down to programmers’ unconscious agendas to create job security.
Personally, I have not a lot of reason to be on my phone when I can be on a desktop, but yes, I kind of feel like the Internet is seriously screwed with this trend.
Let’s face it - it is much more time consuming to program a great responsive design that is everything to all devices. And more time = more money for custom programming. Yet people are too cheap to pay for it (smbs anyway) so they use crappy, code bloated templates instead. Since Google’s latest and greatest update, browsing site on a cell phone is setting oneself up to be tortured - just no point as nearly every so-called mobile friendly site is bloated.
Also, seems like ‘Don’t Make Me Think’ is a title most people in the business these days have never heard of. Today for the first time I struggled to figure out how to get a google map code link - as it was under some ridiculous icon.
It actually takes 1/2 the time or less to build a mobile site + regular site - and the tablets do well with either version. And generally - that is what my CLIENTS want. If you don’t want to do two or three sites, you can also use CSS to switch out the versions automatically based on screen size (though for some obscure reason this practice is supposed ‘bad’).
You can also use CSS to allow the actual user to do the toggling.
So during the past few years, I’ve found some great solutions that do not invoive ‘templated responsive frameworks.’ The problem now is with Google and basically they are institutionally forcing this disaster. Reminds of the whole link building debacle - which was just a big huge time waste. Frankly, I’ve done effective SEO for years and never once resorted to link building which is more like SEO for suits who cannot design, write or program.
I truly hope people wake up to this disaster and correct course.