Before deciding to delve into a responsive site design, it is important to know where the majority of your website traffic comes from. If you notice an upward trend in mobile searches, the time for a responsive site may be near. A responsive site ensures that no matter how visitors arrive to your site, they will see all the same contents as they would on their desktops. These sites guarantee your visitors will find what they want without any restrictions due to the device they are on.
There are countless devices with varying screen sizes on the market. Responsive sites are the best way to guarantee consistency across the board. These sites not only cater to the customers search needs, but will also benefit your SEO. A responsive site provides consistent SEO results, allows you to easily avoid duplicate content, improves usability, and so much more.
Easily Avoid Duplicate Content
As you probably know, Google penalizes sites for duplicate content. Instead of housing content on the original site and on a separate mobile site, responsive design removes this need. The same content appears once across all platforms, adjusting to the device size.
Keep Links
Link building is a timely effort. Chances are you have already invested time into building backlinks on your current site. That being said, you'll probably want to use those same links to benefit your mobile site. When you build a stand alone mobile site, you'll have to build backlinks specifically for this site. A responsive site will maintain the same links across all platforms.
Better Usability
Mobile users desire an optimal experience. The better their experience- the better your SEO. Site quality is a huge SEO factor. When your site is poorly designed or is not optimized, users will bounce. Don't let visitors leave your site because you don't have a site that fits their search needs.
Maintain Current Onsite SEO Efforts
A responsive site allows you to maintain all of your previous onsite SEO. This includes your anchor text, internal linking structure, title tags, keywords, description and content. You won't have to optimize or create for a separate mobile site.
Improve Local Rankings
People are most likely looking for directions to local businesses from their mobile devices. If the user can't find what they are looking for they will leave your site. A responsive site that targets local keywords can help improve your search rank, decrease bounce rates, and enhance the user experience.
Other Benefits
- Easier to maintain. Content and new feature updates are easily managed on responsive sites. You make a change in once place and it occurs across all platforms.
- Consistent URL structure. A responsive site will eliminate the need for URL redirects and will eliminate any confusion.
- Increases conversion rates. Since there is no need for redirection, there will be a positive impact on your conversion rates by eliminating performance barriers.
It is imperative that content and complete functionality of your website be available to mobile users. You will have consistent SEO results and seamless transitions. Responsive design positively impacts and improves SEO. In order to satisfy users while maintaining important SEO juice, responsive design wins out.