Web Design: Why You Should Consider Using Responsive Web Design
Responsive Web design is a design method that involves making one version of a website that works no matter what type of device you’re using. When a site is put together in this way, you could navigate to the same page on a desktop computer running Chrome, an iPhone running mobile Safari, or an Android tablet running the stock browser, and see the same site, just visually adjusted for the screen size you’re viewing it on. In addition to the convenience this provides users who don’t have to navigate a mobile version for content they’re used to seeing on a desktop site, there are a number of other reasons your company could benefit from utilizing responsive Web design.
One reason to consider using responsive design is because it allows you to keep the same content across all of your different devices. Now, instead of having to change text, images, or other content on several versions of pages for desktop and mobile, you can now make one change and have it reflected across all of the devices your content appears on. This is helpful both to your visitors and search engines that only have to crawl one version of the content on your website.
Speaking of search engines, another benefit to using responsive Web design is the ability to avoid potential issues with duplicate content. There are instances where your website could be penalized for having the same content on two different pages, even though one is a desktop version and another is a mobile version of the same page. By creating one page and having it adjust to the device the page is being viewed on, this problem can be avoided entirely.
There’s another SEO benefit that responsive design can add to your site, and that’s in the area of inbound links. When your website has two separate versions for desktop and mobile, the mobile versions of pages often have their own URLs. Because search engines factor links into the total equation of how highly a page should rank in search results, and desktop pages get the most inbound links, your mobile rankings can suffer as a result. By keeping desktop and mobile URLs the same through the use of responsive Web design, you can be sure that your desktop and mobile rankings all see the benefit of any inbound links you receive.
When you’re looking to have your next website put together, consider utilizing responsive Web design. It can simplify things on the content management side, as well as help your search engine optimization efforts.