The adoption of smartphones and tablets has increased rapidly in recent years and if SEO is at the heart of your digital marketing strategy, having a mobile–friendly website is becoming essential.
Smartphone sales have recently overtaken desktop computer sales, and as a result mobile Internet usage is predicted to overtake desktop internet usage by 2014. The next logical step is that mobile search will overtake desktop search at some point in the near future as well.
With around 67% of users claiming that they would be more likely to purchase from a mobile-friendly website, companies that rely on SEO & E-Commerce would be wise to start making the switch to mobile-friendly websites, and responsive web design specifically.
If SEO & E-Commerceis a factor for your website, here are three reasons why responsive web design is the best option for your mobile SEO strategy.
Recommended By Google
Google has around a 67% market share regarding web search, so when they speak web companies should listen. Google states that responsive web design is its recommended mobile configuration, and even goes so far as to refer to responsive web design as the industry best practice.
This is because responsive design sites have one URL and the same HTML, regardless of device, which makes it easier and more efficient for Google to crawl, index, and organize content. Contrast this with a separate mobile site which has a different URL and different HTML than its desktop counterpart, requiring Google to crawl and index multiple versions of the same site.
Additionally, Google prefers responsive web design because content that lives on one website and one URL is much easier for users to share, interact with, and link to than content that lives on a separate mobile site. This creates a less than optimal user-experience, and because of the large emphasis Google is now placing on user-experience as a ranking factor, this is essential to take into account with regards to SEO.
One Website, Many Devices
One of the most appealing aspects of responsive web design is that a responsive website can provide a great user-experience across many devices and screen sizes. This is an important because it is impossible to anticipate all the devices and screen sizes your customers will use to access your site. A site that works well regardless of these variables will provide a better and more consistent user-experience than a separate mobile site that is designed for a specific device and screen size.
Easier to Manage
Having a separate desktop and mobile site requires having separate SEO campaigns. Managing one site and one SEO campaign is far easier than managing two sites and two SEO campaigns. This is a key advantage a responsive website has over a separate mobile site.
Time to go Responsive?
Responsive web design is recommended by Google, it allows one website to provide a great user-experience across many devices and screen sizes, and it also makes managing your SEO strategy easier. For these reasons, D5 Media incorporates responsive web design into all our web projects as standard.
Get in touch for more details on how D5 Media can help you with your latest website.
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