4 Reasons why Responsive Web Design is the best option for your mobile strategy
It’s now official... what we have been anticipating for years... Google has confirmed there are now more searches on mobile than on desktop.
Now more than ever, it has become so important to have a mobile-friendly website. Especially when on April 21st 2015 Google announced that mobile-friendliness would now be search-ranking factor.
But why should you go responsive? Why not keep a mobile site? Here are 4 reasons why you should consider responsive:
Rendered experience:
In responsive design, the device does the work and automatically adjusts according to a device’s screen size (large or small) and orientation (landscape or portrait). Responsive design is a very good and flexible solution.
Whereas mobile is essentially a copy of your website, where the server does the work to deliver an optimised page that’s smaller and easier to navigate.
Domain Protection
With a mobile site, you must create a different domain (many companies choose to differentiate theirs by “m.domain.com”).
The problem with this is it can dilute the domain and hurt organic search traffic. Also it can add to website management because you have to maintain two separate silos of content.
However, with responsive design a separate domain is not required, so all web traffic is directed to a single URL, increasing traffic and avoiding a mobile site redirect altogether.
Link Equity
Because a mobile site uses a separate domain, links shared from mobile browsers will not count as search link equity toward your primary site.
A responsive website provides a much better option for search. Since responsive design simply embeds new code on the back-end of your website, your company’s link equity is preserved.
Future-proof
The technology landscape is forever evolving. Therefore it’s inevitable you will have to re-work a mobile site to stay current with next-generation phones and mobile browsers. This will cost money and undoubtedly involve more maintenance.
With Responsive Design the technology is future-ready because once added to site it will work on next months and next year’s devices without having to be programmed further.
Conclusion
Responsive web design is recommended by Google, it allows one website to provide a great user-experience across many devices and screen sizes, it makes managing your SEO strategy easier and finally and it you will be a better return on your investment. They are the reasons why you should choose Responsive Design over a mobile website. So if you haven’t done so already, now is the time to invest in a responsive website.
