Responsive web design

has become extremely important not only in search engine ranking perspective but also in total reach and online competitiveness. It is widely known and understood that Google will rank those websites better in search results that have responsive design. But why would Google rank responsive websites higher and give them more priority than non-responsive websites? The answer is simple: “Google wants to enhance their user-experience because they know people are flocking on google search engine through smart devices”. Now if so many people are accessing Google through their smart phones or tablets, Google would surely recommend responsive designs and give them upper-hand.

1- Search engine ranking

In this highly competitive internet age search engine ranking is oxygen to any business whether they are established one or a startup. If you are not impressively ranked in search engines you will lose unprecedented amount of business to your competitors. Like several other factors responsive designs have a direct impact on the following ranking factors that eventually contribute towards search ranking.

• Enhanced user experience

The site becomes user friendly and enhance user experience which google consider as one of the ranking factors in search results. As Google says “ We recommend using responsive web design because it has many good aspects”

• Response time

The site becomes mobile friendly and reduces response time as mobile devices has less capability of processing data as fast as normal computers. This helps websites in two ways: 1- Google also considers website response time as an important ranking factor to increase user experience. 2- Real-time users enjoy fast response and become returning users.

• Reduces bounce rate

Bounce rate is appeared to be real killer, if you have high bounce rate more than 40-50%, this sends the signal back to google that people do not like your web content. Your site would be considered worth showing to readers if you have less than 40% bounce rate. On top of that if you do not have responsive web design you will run the risk of increasing your overall bounce rate because your site is inaccessible or not working well on mobile devices.

• Social sharing

You probably do not realize how many people can share your content on social media. People are more likely to share content through mobile devices than that of computers because on mobile devices people are more active in social activities hence, greater opportunities for content sharing. And again if you don’t have responsive website you have hindered your content from mobile devices and social sharing. Finally your search engine rankings becomes affected if your content is not being shared on social sites.

2- Reach out more audience-

According to e-marketer and world internet stats It has been estimated that “Smartphone Uses Worldwide Will Total 1.75 Billion in 2014 and Mobile users pick up smartphones as they become more affordable, 3G and 4G networks advance”. This clearly states that smartphone internet usage is outnumbering rapidly. Responsive design enables websites to reach out maximum available audience. Reaching more audience means more visits, more business, more engagement, more queries and higher search ranking.

3- Competitive edge

Does responsive design provide companies with competitive edge? This question would have been difficult to answer probably after few years because almost every site on the internet would have been transformed into responsive by then. But for now the answer is simply “yes“. According to Podjarny a website performance researcher ” Roughly 1 out of 8 websites is responsive which means around 12.5 % of the websites are appeared to be responsive. Some people argued, it might be less. So the idea here is that your responsive web design stand amongst 12.5% of the entire web population which would definitely provide you with some sort of competitive advantage.

Yasir Zeb

Digital marketing enthusiast and industry professional in Digital technologies, Technology News, Mobile phones, software, gadgets with vast experience in the tech industry, I have a keen interest in technology, News breaking.