SEO Related, Website

How can responsive website design benefits SEO?

Subscribe To Our Mailing List

Get Updates And Learn From The Best

2023-11-03
How can responsive website design benefits SEO?
Subscribe To Our Mailing List

Get Updates And Learn From The Best

2023-11-03

Table of Contents

Everyone knows that responsive website design is the key to boosting the browsing experience of different users. However, at the same time, responsive website design plays a vital role in enhancing your SEO performance.

But first, let’s briefly understand what responsive web design is. Responsive web design involves creating pages that adapt to different devices and screen sizes, providing a seamless user experience. With mobile traffic accounting for nearly half of all web traffic globally, having a website accessible and easy to navigate on different devices is crucial.

Then how come responsive website design is beneficial for SEO performance?

Mobile-first web design

As mentioned, users nowadays tend to enter websites via mobile phone devices as they are small and convenient. With more users accessing the internet via mobile devices, Google prioritizes the perfectly run websites on the mobile device.

Responsive web design aims to provide valuable and accessible content to mobile users. Websites that are optimised for mobile devices and have a responsive design are more likely to rank higher in search engine results.

Page loading speed

Page speed is another crucial factor for SEO; responsive web design can help improve it. Websites that are mobile responsive load faster on both mobile and desktop devices, enhancing the overall user experience in different ways:

1. Reducing HTTP requests by using a single HTML document and CSS stylesheet

2. Ensuring images can adapt to different devices via image optimization
3. Using media queries to load the specific assets based on the user’s device characteristics so that unnecessary downloads can be avoided

4. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) can be used to boost the page loading speed.

5. Content prioritization of mobile-first design can create a faster perceived page load time.

A fast loading time can enhance the users’ browsing experience, and high satisfaction of your site visitors can bring you more benefits.

Time on page and user's engagement

Faster loading times can lead to higher engagement and lower bounce rates. A high bounce rate indicates that users leave your site quickly, often due to slow loading times or a poor user experience. With a responsive website approach, you can provide users with a seamless and user-friendly design, keep them on your site longer, and reduce bounce rates.
6551297

The time a user spends on your page is one of the SEO performance criteria. If the web crawler detects that visitors usually spend a lot of time on your site, your site will be identified as high quality, so that your site will be prioritized in the search engine result page and enhance exposure. That is why you must ensure your website can retain customers and keep the bounce rate as low as possible.

Avoid duplicate content

When building or redesigning your site, it’s easy to unintentionally create multiple versions of your website, leading to duplicate content problems. If there are multiple URLs sharing duplicate content, the browser will be confused and not know how to rank the related websites in the SERP, which will very likely lower the SEO score.

When the developers need to develop both the desktop and mobile versions of a website, if the responsive web designing approach is not adopted, there will be two different URLs generated for the same website (one for the desktop version and one for the mobile version). If the browser notices that there are two URLs, it will identify them as two different websites, affecting the SEO performance.
If a responsive web design approach is adopted, the developer may apply the website to different types of devices with only one URL, avoiding the problem of duplicate content and enhancing the overall SEO performance. 

If you are developing a website, it is essential to consider its responsiveness to enhance your site’s SEO performance and mobile friendliness. If you are looking for professional help, GoGoChart is here to help! Contact us and schedule a one-on-one consultation with us!