Importance of Responsive Web Design in SEO
Creating a well-optimized website is something like throwing your custom-made, wide net into the sea in the expectation you’ll grab as much bass as you can. It would help if you considered all the devices that people use to surf the internet and cover most of the options with a responsive web design that adjusts content into different screen sizes. That can be important as you need each one of your visitors to have the best user experience.
While most of the probably make sense to you, it may still surprise you to know that responsive web design directly affects your search engine optimization score well.
This news must not become a surprise for SEO companies because it’s the job to accommodate accordingly and to predict where the web landscape headed. That’s the reason it’s still surprising that you realize many organizations and SEOs have adopted an even more mobile-friendly website – namely, responsive mobile design.
Always bear in mind that Google can remain user-centric. When people shifted to a more mobile-focused web browsing journey, Google immediately adapted, which entails that Google prefers the SEOs that focus on the users instead of anything.
Aside from being optimized for the mobile platform, here are seven reasons why a mobile responsive design can help your SEO goals:
1. Page Load Time
We all understand this one variable that Google believes when ranking websites would be the page load moment, the faster it may be, the better it’d be for your rankings. If you are an SEO, then it is your job to create the site load as soon as possible to assist your site to become ranked higher.
Websites that are more mobile responsive will often load faster compared to those that are not. It will lead to positive user experience and a boost in rankings. Additionally, Google shows favor to the websites which have fewer page loading times, so it wouldn’t be detrimental that you optimize it for a faster page load period.
2. More Mobile Traffic
The first and potentially the most crucial outcome of responsive web design is that the increased traffic. Mobile surfing has been climbing steadily for years today, and in 2016, according to a report, it was able to transcend desktop browsing with 51.3 percent contribute. It usually means that mobile phones are becoming a principal focal point for developers on the market, and mobile optimization is now the industry standard. By using responsive design on your website, you open the doors for that vast majority of web users nowadays, which improves your SEO score.
3. Lower Bounce Rate
Website visits mean that nothing if the bounce speed is exceptionally high — this usually means that a variety of visitors who visit your website leave because of the poor experience. A lot of professional search engine optimization agencies recommend responsive web design as a means of lowering the bounce speed, also improving your rank.
Keep in mind. However, that bounce rate is a factor as it depends on the kind of website you’ve got. According to Conversion XL, service-based sites get up to 30 percent bounce rate, content sites from 40-60%. One user even pointed out the unreliability of it, all having an example of his website, which contains images, and the bounce speed is high because people see the image they need and render.
4. Positive UX
It’s no real surprise for you that user experience affects search engine optimization a lot. After all, you are making a website for the users. Users need to find a way to observe the content on any screen and browse it successfully. It’s about those impressions — Since Cody Arsenault from Key CDN points out – You don’t need any users to struggle with anything, scrolling, or zooming else no matter what’s the browsing device.
5. Site Usability
One of the primary factors why users cannot stay on your website for an extended amount of time is because they have a hard time browsing through its pages. Consequently, the moment an individual spends on your page can be used by Google to determine the page’s or a site’s value or quality.
For those who get a responsive web design, then users may have a much easier time navigating throughout your website and overall have a fantastic user experience. It entails that if your site’s user experience is top-notch, you will have repeat visitors and a higher volume of users that convert. A fantastic responsive mobile web design leads to excellent user experience, and you will even earn Google’s favor, which will cause greater rewards (higher rankings).
6. Google bots take RWD Seriously
At the fundamental point, responsive design is ‘valuable’ from a search engine optimization perspective as a result of its codebase. Despite the start of RWD technology several years back, a significant percentage of websites continue to possess two variants — mobile and desktop. The underlying concern is that Google bots, as well as search engine bots, give importance to page hierarchy that is neat and simple, which they can find in sites.
Google does not like content repetition. However, with many variants of the site, the content replica is being promoted by you. Thus, Google is likely if you’ve got different versions for desktop and mobile, to demote your site. Time is another element that results in the reduction of your pages’ ranking. Having multiple versions of your website necessitates search engine crawlers to invest more time browsing each of these pages. Since the spiders require hours to crawl, Google is more prone to lower your rankings slowly.
7. Google’s Mobilegeddon Update
Google’s attachment to friendliness is visible further with it’s recent, leading update unofficially called ‘Mobilegeddon.’ This update has influenced the rankings of many websites in searches. It is another indication of the management which Google led in merely continuing to enlarge the ‘mobile-friendly’ factor in its SERPs, and when your website is not responsive, it will soon be left.
While Google has a convention of not officially announcing its updates, ‘Mobilegeddon’ was an exclusion. Google announced that its release in advance and now responsive web design is ‘officially’ a significant factor in search engine optimization.
Conclusion
If your website isn’t mobile-optimized, then now is the time that you chose the ideal step. If you intend an update, it’s encouraged to generate your internet website receptive before upgrading it. It really could be the time for you to get it assessed and create the essential changes. The more you wait for it, the longer your search rankings are likely to impact. If a search engine optimization campaign is conducting, a non-responsive site won’t assist you to obtain out of this.