Responsive Web Design: How Important Is It To Boost Your SEO Ranking? | Google loves responsive websites. Google runs the search game at this point, and dictates what a lot of websites should or shouldn’t do. If Google put their weight behind responsive website design, then it makes sense to listen. Does your business cater for your mobile audience yet? If not, then the sooner the better. A responsive web design boasts a range of benefits, giving your potential customers the online experience they deserve, whether they’re viewing it on a PC, mobile, or tablet device. Why responsive web design is so great for SEO purposes?
What is Responsive Web Design?
A responsive web design means that whatever device is used, the website will respond to their screen size, and be automatically compatible. This allows optimum viewing and usability on all devices, rather than only catering to desktop PCs, and having mobile users struggle to view content. If you’ve ever had to pinch to zoom and scroll around an unoptimized website on a mobile device, you know how annoying it can cause.
How Important Is Responsive Web Design To Boost Your SEO Ranking?
1. Usability
When it comes to SEO, Google runs the show. Google wants to send their own users to the websites they wish to see, which means offering them the most accessible and usable sites for the user is important. And what gives the best form of usability to the biggest percentage of users? A responsive web design. Going responsive means there’s less frustration for users trying to find their way around your website, and it also gives them your content in a format they can actually read.
2. Longer Time on Page
If you are providing a top experience for customers who come across your website, they are going to spend longer on it. If browsers find content on your website that responds and is suitably presented on their device, then they will continue to read and navigate through your website. The longer they spend on the page, the more Google will recognize you are providing a great quality experience for any users, meaning a nice boost in search rankings. If users are spending very little time on each page, whether it’s down to content or navigational issues, then Google will not rank you as highly, then it will reduce your SEO efforts.
3. Link Building
If you have a mobile website, you are going to have fewer links to your mobile site rather than your main desktop one. With a responsive web design, your website is always mobile-friendly, meaning it will still maintain the backlinks of your original site. As people will be linking to your site from both desktops and mobile devices, this combination means you stand a higher chance of gaining a better backlink profile. With a separate mobile website, it would mean starting from scratch in order to build authority. Focusing in on one single site is a much more appealing alternative and that is what responsive web design offers. Responsive websites have the same URL and use the same HTML. Therefore, responsive websites make it a simpler task for Google to crawl and index your content which is always a plus when it comes to SEO.
4. Page Loading Speed
Responsive websites do not require a redirection of queries in order to reach a particular URL. So, responsive web designs will be reduce to only the necessary parts for mobile devices, it leads to faster website load times, which Google will recognize, and use in their algorithm to give you a boost in your search rankings.
Your Web hosting provider can also play a part when it comes to site speed. The information superhighway acts a lot like a real highway. Traffic builds up and slow your Website down. However, if your Web hosting has multiple connections to the Internet backbone, they can re-route you to a less crowded connection. If they have access to a cloud infrastructure, the highway is never too crowded. The cloud servers simply add processing capacity as traffic builds. Cloud infrastructures allow Web hosts to keep your traffic flowing and your site speed up.
5. Sharing and Social Signals
A huge number of social media users are accessing and browsing the networks via the mobile networks. When you share a link to your responsive website, your website will be suitable for whatever device a user is using. If you are sharing content on social media, and don’t have a responsive web design fit for purpose for those on their mobile phones, they could be landing on poorly optimised websites, and fail to digest the content. However, if the site is responsive and fits their screen for easy use and accessibility, they’ll be more likely to stick around.
This is a plus from an SEO standpoint anyhow, but this also means they would be more likely to follow your brand on social media, alongside engage with posts through likes, shares, favourites, retweets, or anything else. The bonus here is that Google now recognizes social engagement as an indicator of good quality content, and so will use social media engagement as part of their search signals to boost rankings. Social media may seem like a waste of time to some, but it is a great way to find new audiences, directly engage with them on a regular basis and also help you stand in search engine results.