Learn how responsive website design can enhance your SEO efforts
Responsive web design is a relatively new approach where the design and the development of the website will respond to the user’s environment and behavior. It is based on the size of the screen, the platform used, and the orientation.
In today’s world, companies are going to need a website that is mobile friendly. Most people who own cell phones have a Smartphone, and these people search the web more often on their phones today than they do on their computers. Searching for websites on mobile phones is just more convenient. Most people have their phones with them at all times.
If a person wants to search the web for a particular product or service, they would rather use their phone instead of getting up and going to their computer. A responsive web design will make the website both mobile and desktop friendly. While responsive web design is important for sites to get more visitors, it also has plenty of SEO benefits. At the end of the day, SEO is extremely important for a website. The higher the ranking on the search engine, the more traffic the site will get.
#1 Because Google Says Responsive Web Design Is Important
Since Google chooses which sites are listed first during a search, companies should do what Google says. Most companies rely on search engine results for their site to be found quickly and easily. Because Google recommends responsive design configuration for mobile sites, web designers should listen. By doing what Google says, the website can get serious SEO value. When the site has SEO value, it will be listed at the top of the search. Since most people often click on the very top result listed, this is extremely important.
#2 Keeps From Creating Duplicate Content
One of the biggest problems of building a mobile site to go along with the website is that it will be a standalone site. This means that each page would be considered a separate entity. This means that you could be creating duplicate content. Even though Google says that mobile versions with the same content as desktop sites won’t cause any issues, the duplicate content could cause problems. This means that users could click on the desktop version on their Smartphones or the mobile version on their desktop. Either way, it will make getting on the website difficult.
#3 Stronger Link Building
A responsive site will have a single URL for each page. This is not the case with a mobile or a desktop version. A responsive site will link the user to both the mobile and the master site. Because of this, the page’s rank on Google won’t be lower. In fact, it can build a strong backlink on either the mobile or desktop sites. When it comes to SEO, this is huge.
#4 Reduces the Bounce Rate
If companies don’t use responsive web design, they risk customers getting fed up with their site and moving on to a competitor’s. If they are searching on their mobile device and it is designed for a desktop, they will likely deal with horizontal text and letters that are so small even squinting cannot help them see what they are reading.
This frustration can cause them to move onto a site that is easier to navigate. The bounce rate is not only bad for the company’s business, it can also affect their ranking with Google. If users close the site after just a few seconds and if they don’t click through any pages, the site’s bounce rate will rise and Google will drop the site’s rankings, which will reduce in less traffic. A responsive web design makes the site easier to use, so users won’t be leaving the site quickly, keeping the bounce rate down.
#5 Decreases the Page Load Speed
If a website is not responsive, it can take a mobile site over 7 seconds to load. This is not acceptable for Google. They prefer that the page loads in one second or less. If the website is responsive, it doesn’t need to redirect to a different URL to see the page, therefore, the page loads much faster. There are no true statistics regarding the load speed on rankings, however, it is clear that a good user experience is good for the Google rankings. A decreased load speed will also make users happier. If a mobile site takes too long to load, users are likely to get frustrated and search for a new site. This could lead the user right to the company’s biggest competitor.
#6 Improves Mobile Search Rankings
According to Google, mobile sites are ranked in the same way that master sites are ranked. Since more people today are searching for sites on their mobile phones, it is best that websites are able to accommodate mobile users. A mobile-friendly website will get a much higher ranking on Google than a mobile site that is not user-friendly. Not only will this make their experience on the site a better one, Google will also increase the search ranking on mobile devices. Since mobile searches are so popular today, mobile sites need a high Google ranking just like the master site does.
If a company wants their site to be seen, they are going to need to focus on SEO. If the site is not SEO friendly, the sites listing could end up on the second search page, where most people never even look. There are plenty of ways to make a site SEO friendly, and one of them is to make the website responsive.
Considering all of the ways that a responsive site can improve the Google ranking on both desktop and mobile versions, companies would be crazy not to take advantage of this option. The higher the site’s ranking on both desktop and mobile versions of the site, the more traffic it will get. The more traffic a website gets, the more customers the company will have. The more customers they have, the more money they make. In business, at the end of the day, it is all about the money.