The internet is saturated with websites. Even the best digital marketing company cannot achieve the desired KPIs unless the website offers a superior user experience and is perfectly optimized for the search engine.
In 2022, you also need to think about the multi-device compatibility of your website. Top web design companies must ensure that the design and development of a website are such that whether a visitor opens the URL on their desktop or mobile browser, the user experience is the same. In other words, creating a responsive web design is now a paramount need.
But the need goes beyond the aesthetics — on multiple occasions, Google has hinted at the influence of a responsive web design on search engine optimization. Needless to say, top SEO companies cannot discount the importance of responsive web design while crafting the SEO strategy.
Wondering how responsive design helps SEO? Here are seven SEO benefits you will enjoy, thanks to a responsive web design:
1- Offers Better Page Speed
Page load speed is an important factor considered by Google’s algorithm for ranking websites. Sites that load faster are usually favoured over the slow-loading ones. Slow-loading sites are also unlikely to receive quality organic traffic. And how quickly your website loads also have a considerable impact on user experience. After all, it can be frustrating for any user to wait for a link to load endlessly. There is a steady increase in abandonment rates when websites take too long to load properly.
When you use a responsive web design, the same website adjusts to fit different screen sizes. You don’t have to create separate designs for desktops and mobile devices. Since these responsive websites load quickly regardless of how they are accessed, they help attract more traffic. And once users keep coming back to your website, the algorithm takes note of your website’s popularity and tweaks your search engine ranking.
2- Improves Social Sharing
Human behaviour is such that when people find your content interesting, they want to share it with others.
Since users find it easier and more engaging to interact with a responsive web design, they are more likely to share it on their social accounts. In fact, web designers often add easy-to-use buttons and plugins to make social sharing a cakewalk. Even though social sharing on its own is not vital for SEO, more shares definitely boost the website visibility, draw in more traffic and increase your reach.
In other words, the higher opportunity of reaching out to a wider audience, the more eyeballs your website will grab. Over time, this can push your search engine ranking.
3 – Reduces The Chances of Duplicate Content
For Google, the mobile version of the website is distinct from the desktop version. When you have two separate websites for mobile and desktop, avoiding duplication of content is difficult. Even though the addresses of these websites may be different, Google may get confused between the two and not understand which content to prioritize. This can adversely impact the SEO of your website.
Having a responsive web design that can be used for both mobile and desktop is the perfect antidote to this issue. Since a single website is compatible with all types of environments, you don’t have to lose sleep over duplicate URLs or content. When you have one website with unique content, it is easier for the search engine to crawl and index it properly.
4 – Promotes Better Link Building
Link building is a popular tactic used by SEO specialists to attract the right audience to a website. The more high-quality links you add to your website, the better are your chances of attracting steady traffic. Over time, link building helps the search engine discover your site and boost its ranking.
There is a single URL for each webpage in responsive design. When you use link building on such a web design, every link added to your main website is also a backlink for your mobile website. This helps you build a strong backlink profile of your website for both mobile and desktop searches without compromising the PageRank.
5 – Decreases Bounce Rate
Bounce rate indicates how quickly website visitors exit your website to return to the search results. A high bounce rate signals that your website could not deliver the best experience to engage the audience. When this happens too often, the search engine believes that your website may not be the correct result for a search term since users seem to leave immediately.
The prompt return to the search engine results page hurts your SEO and pulls down the ranking of your website, signalling to the search engine that there is no valuable content.
A responsive web design ensures that visitors get an easy-to-navigate website and access all the relevant content in a format they can follow. Moreover, since every element on the webpage automatically scales as per the screen size, such websites maximize the user experience. And for that reason, the bounce rate reduces and, in turn, improves the SEO.
6 – Enhances User Experience
SEO and user experience are intricately related. Having a high-ranking website is only possible when the user experience of your website aids engagement. And superior user experience demands that the website is easy to navigate, has user-friendly language, loads fast, and follows the right layout design to organize the information.
Luckily, user experience is at the heart of responsive web design. The principles demand that every website be designed to respond to how users behave on a particular screen. All visual assets should be able to adapt to varying screen sizes and resolutions so that UX is never compromised, regardless of what kind of device is used.
7 – Enhances Mobile Friendliness
How mobile-friendly your website is matters for SEO.
In 2018, Google disclosed that it uses a mobile-first approach and considers the mobile version of your website for ranking and indexing. In fact, mobile-first indexing is the default approach for all websites published after July 2019.
Adopting a responsive web design automatically ensures that your website performs well, even on the smallest of mobile screens. That’s why, being user-friendly and responsive to mobile traffic helps you improve your SEO rank.
Having A Responsive Web Design is Non-Negotiable For Your SEO
Users and user experience are what drive responsive website design. When you make it easier for the audience to engage with your website, you automatically improve your SEO.
Is your website responsive? Step up your game with SPINX, a web development and digital agency based in Los Angeles, CA, which can help design custom websites suited to your needs. Look no further and reach out to SPINX to take care of your website design needs.
Author Bio:
Brijesh Jakharia co-founded SPINX Digital in 2005 and takes great pride in crafting web and mobile marketing solutions for mid-market businesses to enterprises. Marketing is his passion, and the thrill to build a brand from the ground up has helped him craft successful brand stories for world-class clients. While not at work, he loves to spend his time on research and reading digital content stories.
