From an SEO perspective, there are plenty of reasons to embrace responsive web design as soon as possible. Here are just five of the top benefits to help push you in this direction.
User experience
First and foremost, as sites need to be simple to use, visitors will quickly give you the cold shoulder if they cannot interact with the interface or find their way around. This is especially true if they are using a smartphone to browse.
If your site is not responsive or blessed with an intuitive interface, it will suffer from a lower average in terms of the amount of time visitors spend on each page. This will hit your search ranking, making responsive design a great answer.
Page load speed
This is another key ranking signal that Google factors in when determining the quality of your site. Responsive sites tend to load more quickly than non-optimised rivals and will benefit from being marked mobile-friendly on SERPs.
Bounce rate
A site that is not optimised for mobile devices will have a high bounce rate, since smartphone users will instantly realise that the pages do not display correctly on their device and will head elsewhere in a matter of seconds. A responsive site not only gives them access to the content they crave but also presents it in a way that makes it simple to consume.
Content duplication
Setting up two sites, one for desktop and one for mobile, will mean you not only double your workload but also end up with a lot of content that will be blacklisted as duplicated by Google. A responsive site, built with the help of a London SEO agency such as https://www.elevateuk.com/seo-services/, will overcome this obstacle and avoid incurring ranking penalties.
Shareability
Social networking use is dominant, especially amongst the under 35s. This makes it vital for site owners to target users of Facebook, Twitter and other popular platforms with content that can easily be shared.
The key to shareability comes down to whether the linked content is hosted on a responsive site that works seamlessly on all devices. If this is not the case, you will be unable to build an audience and thus be incapable of benefitting from the boost to visitor numbers that this would bring.
