Benefits of Responsive Design

“Responsive design” has become a bit of a buzz word these days in the marketing world, with many
webmasters speaking its praise for
providing an optimal user experience for browsing on mobile devices. And there’s no greater advocate to make the case for responsive design than Google. On July 6, 2012, Pierre Far,Google webmaster trends analyst,announced clear guidelines and recommendations on mobile SEO, which also addressed responsive design. While Google still recognized device-specific HTML as a viable
alternative, they recommend
responsive design, when possible, for the following reasons:


Maintaining one URL for your
website, regardless of whether it’s
being viewed on mobile devices or
a desktop, makes it easier for users
to respond to calls-to-action on
your site, such as a user sharing
one of your product pages on their
own Facebook page or linking to an
article on your website from their
own website.

By eliminating the need for
redirects, responsive design allows
users to easily navigate back and
forth between pages on your site,
with minimal load time.

Googlebot user agents only need to crawl your responsive web
design pages once to retrieve your
content.

While the rationale behind Google’s recommendation is sound, there’s still one critical component to
consider before deciding if responsive design is the right solution for your company: Content length. While responsive design takes into account how the design should look, it doesn’t take into account how the page will read. This means that if you have lengthy content on your web pages, your site may fit
proportionately on mobile device
screens, but users will be scrolling … and scrolling … and scrolling to read it all.

In addition, a mobile user is typically
interested in different content than a
desktop or tablet user and responsive
design may inhibit your ability to
tailor content specifically to mobile
needs. Mobile users are looking for
resources on-the-go, such as finding
coupons to use at a store they’re
currently shopping in or finding
directions to a nearby restaurant.
According to Google’s CPG Blog,
tablets are still primarily being used
while at home. For example, Google’s
research identified that some of the
most frequent tablet uses were
leisurely activities, including
checking email, playing games and
social networking.

Below is a graph that illustrates
some of the top reasons why
SmartPhone owners use the Internet on mobile devices, according to Google.

Although this shouldn’t deter you
from taking advantage of the many
great benefits of responsive design, it
is something to consider before
jumping on the bandwagon. You
want your site to provide the best
experience for users from a design
— and a readability — standpoint.

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