How Responsive Design Websites Help Mobile SEO

All website managers want to increase viewers and to do so, they aim to boost their SEO rankings. Creating responsive design websites helps with this in numerous ways by increasing the page’s ability to reach a wider audience. Responsive design is the idea that instead of creating a separate website that will appear on each platform, such as a computer, tablet, or smartphone, a single design will respond to the preferences of the user, working on all platforms. A simple example would be that a responsive design can work in both landscape and portrait modes. The advantages for this type of website are obvious in terms of the time needed to complete the design, but these benefits also extend to mobile SEO.

Google Prefers Responsive Website Design

Google is known to be the leader in determining what affects SEO due to its position as the top search engine. Google has repeatedly stated that it prefers responsive design websites over others when looking at SEO. This means that simply by opting for this type of design, you will boost your rankings.

Google has specifically said some of its reasons for preferring responsive design as opposed to dynamic serving websites or separate URLs. They enjoy the ability to use a single URL for easy sharing and linking as well as an increase in speed. Google also finds it easier to index and crawl sites that are set up with a responsive design as opposed to having to crawl those with separate mobile URLs. In other words, Google rewards the websites that make it easier for them to index.

Mobile Search Rankings

When looking at mobile SEO, it is important to pay attention to mobile search engines in particular. During searches on mobile devices, Google ranks URLs higher if they have been optimized to work on these devices. If your website has a responsive design, then it qualifies and will see a boost in rankings.

Reduce Bounce Rate

Think about what happens if a person goes to your website and can’t view it correctly. If they find themselves forced to scroll through endless formatting or simply notice the layout is not conducive to viewing, they are likely to simply close your page and move on. These viewers will increase your bounce rate as they do not stay on your page and Google views this negatively. When you use responsive design, the website will automatically customize itself to display correctly on the user’s desired platform, reducing your bounce rate and making sure it doesn’t lower your rankings.

Improve Sharing

In fact, because all versions of your website will have the same URL, social sharing will become easier. Social shares will only need to link to a single URL regardless of the platform the page is being viewed on and the new viewers will have no issues viewing it. If, for example, someone views your website on their computer and shares the link on Facebook, someone clicking this link from their mobile device will see the correct version of your page as the responsive design will adjust accordingly. This is not always the case with a separate mobile website.

Build Mobile Authority

The fact that various platforms share the same URL also means that you do not have to spend time building up the mobile page’s authority. The majority of mobile sites that are separate from the main page will not do well in terms of search rankings. This is because they do not have as many backlinks to build up their reputation as an authority site. When you have a single URL, the mobile website will automatically receive the same reputation on SEO rankings as the standard website. This means there is no time spent creating backlinks to a separate URL. Instead, when the page is viewed on a mobile platform, it will already have the same great ranking as when seen on a computer.

Minimize Duplicity

When you have to create multiple pages for each platform your website will be viewed on, there are more websites that dilute the search results. Each of these will hurt your rankings to some effect, even if they are all for your page. By opting for a responsive design on your website, you eliminate this issue as all platforms will view the website on the same page. This not only boosts your SEO but also makes it easier for visitors to find and use.

If you choose not to use a responsive design for your website, you will be left to create a minimum of two versions, one that is for mobile devices and one that is for computers. If not done correctly, this can negatively affect search rankings as you will be producing the same content twice. Additionally, it will make it challenging to keep the two setups separate and to ensure they match. You don’t want to update the mobile version without doing so with the standard web version or accidentally put one of these designs in the wrong spot as this will hurt the impression you make on visitors. Duplicate websites may also lead to your users accidentally being directed to the wrong page, not viewing it in a way they like, and immediately leaving. As mentioned earlier, this will hurt your bounce rate and subsequently affect the rankings.

Quick Load Times

Responsive design websites are also more likely to load within the ideal time frame set by Google, one second. Traditional mobile websites will take more than seven seconds to load since they need to redirect queries. The unique URL system of responsive design pages will eliminate this requirement, reducing the loading time, and making Google look at your page more favorably. Keep in mind that a slow loading time could also negatively affect your bounce rate as users are unlikely to want to wait more than a few seconds for your website to load.

Sources

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/guidelines-for-responsive-web-design/

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2015/02/05/6-unquestionable-seo-benefits-of-responsive-web-design.aspx

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/4-seo-benefits-responsive-web-design/92807/

 

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