HOW GOOD IS RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN FOR SEO?

Today the whole game of internet circulates round the goal of increasing the SEO count with the ultimate aim of increasing Google rank of the owner’s website. So in this never-ending race of enhancing Google rank, the website holder should leave no stone unturned in implementing any SEO increasing tool. One of such tool, which is creating a lot of buzz these days is creating responsive web page. So what is it all about? Is responsive web design a benefit for SEO? This article tries to evaluate the pros and cons of creating responsive web pages.

In a nutshell, responsive web design is a way to create device-independent web page. In simple terms, this SEO enhancement tool attempts at making a single version of site which opens seamlessly in all devices, be it PC, mobile or tablet. Generally, mobile version of websites cuts shorts the content which is otherwise available on PC version of the same. Responsive web design acts as a remedy to the aforementioned unwanted situation. No matter, whichever device the visitor uses, he would be able to see the same content in a legible way. So, how it is connected to SEO? Let’s find it out.

THUMBS UP FOR RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN:

• GOOGLE RECOMMENDED TOOL: What else could be the topmost favorable point of opting for responsive websites when our very own web site rank assessor Google recommends it? Google acclaims the importance of responsive web design in increasing the SEO count. It has even coined the term ‘industry best practice’ for it. Furthermore, it approves responsive web design as its standard mobile configuration. The reason behind its Google recommendation is that, if the content of a website resides at one place with a single URL, it becomes a straightforward task for Google to share the site with users, as against the usage of separate mobile site.
• USABILITY: Each time user opens any website and then returns immediately to search-engine page, Google counts it as a negative point while calculating rank. Consider a case when your website sports a different mobile version of the site which contains limited content with respect to the desktop version. Now if a user regularly uses the desktop version and one day he tries to open the site on his Smartphone, and he doesn’t get the expected content in the regular desktop view, then he returns back to homepage. The consequences of this situation would be fall in SEO count. Hence using a separate mobile version could have negative effect on your website rank.
• OPTIMIZING MOBILE SEARCH: If you utilize responsive web design to create your website, it will also rank equally to that of mobile specific site in mobile searches also.
• SIMPLIFIED MANAGEMENT: A website designer must be very well aware of the fact that the SEO strategy and campaigns works in different way for PCs and mobiles. As there are mobile specific keywords, so the SEO count works accordingly. Therefore, if we have separate versions of the same site, we need to hire device specific SEO writers or analysts. Additionally, it increases the overheads in management sector. With the usage of responsive web design, management and maintenance of SEO gets simplified as you have a unified site which runs identically in all devices.

THUMBS DOWN FOR RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN:

• TIME REQUIRED FOR ADAPTATION: It will definitely require additional time to adapt to your existing site to responsive web design. But in the longer run, it would save time when it comes to management.
• VIEW OF LARGE PAGES: Since responsive web design showcases the exact content of PC version in mobiles, so pages with enormous content may not have a very user-friendly view on mobile phones. So in some cases it may count low when it comes to mobile user interface.

By analyzing both the pros and cons, we find the positive factors of responsive web design overshadowing its demerits. Moreover, the tagline of ‘Google Recommended’ is enough for responsive web design to make a clean sweep in the field of SEO incremental tool.