Responsive Must-Do's

Congratulations! You have a responsive website! 

Now you have to build content on that site. And you may be asking yourself how this differs from what you've always done - what's different?

Your design and using FaithWebsites Site Manager tools will do a lot of work for you automatically, but the tools and code alone can't do it all. What you put in to your site matters. How you put it in matters even more.

1. Keep a tablet device with you at all times when you are building content if possible. Use it to look at all your pages. Always view your web page on both a full size desktop screen and a touch tablet screen (such as an iPad, Kindle Fire, Samsung Galaxy, etc.). After the tablet, look at your pages on a smart phone.
2. If you don't have a tablet or access to one often enough, then download a free browser plugin to resize your screen to device size. This isn't always a true test, but it's a strong second in lieu of a device. See recommendations below.
3. Build your pages with big visuals AND in a "container" philosophy. "Container" in Site Manager = tool. You have containers with each tool and especially right side tools.
4. Realize that the right side tools will always drop below the main body on a smaller screen. 
5. Realize that on higher resolution, larger monitors (which are on the rise in consumer sales) that your site is spread across a vast space and your right side tools are prime content space!
6. We just contradicted ourselves in point #4 and #5 above. There's a win to this! For pages with a generous amount of main body content that creates downward scrolling, important content needs to be in the main body - or linked to with internal navigation, or even an anchor or hyperlink to the right side content on the same page (creating a quick and friendly jump to reposition the users screen to that content). For pages that have less content, the right side can still contain that very important information, just be sure to use a tool heading or an appropriate heading tag. (H2 - H6)
7. Use the right tool for the job. Not sure - ask us!
8. Keep main drop down menus uncluttered and to the essential. Remember you can exclude individual level 1 pages from your drop down menu. You don't want your menus so long that the user can't even see the end on their smaller screen!
9. Downward scrolling is in. We are all used to scrolling down now, and you can embrace that. Do it well though, and add relevant images throughout your content to continue drawing the eye and finger to swipe downward. 
10. Use proper headlines, and use the Headings menu (headings 2 - 6). This will not only help engage your users but will also help your SEO.

Starting with the above list will help get your content building off to a good start. Want to learn more? Contact us.