Could a Responsive Design Hurt Your SEO?

There are more than one million mobile devices that are activated every day. The number is more than babies are being born across the world.

That said, designing for the mobile becomes an important task for designers. But, when it comes to SEO, is a mobile responsive web design good for your SEO or not?

What Google thinks?

Google recommends mobile responsive design on all websites. That is, Google wants webmaster to follow the best practice of the industry by serving the same HTML regardless of the device. It also encourages designers to use CSS media queries only to decide the rendering on every device.

One of the benefits of this design is that it presents one URL for a page. That means there’s no need for a separate mobile URL, like seoexpertdanny.com vs. m.seoexpertdanny.com.

In theory, it helps your overall SEO.

However, Google also points that if a responsive design doesn’t fit well, it recommends having content served using different HTML.

That means Google recommends a responsive design as a priority. But it quickly notes that if such design is not the best option in serving your audience, it’s okay if responsive design isn’t used.

Google assures remasters that its bots can handle it whether or not you choose different sites for your mobile users and desktop visitors.

So, will the design hurt your SEO? In a word, no. The reason for this is that the design is extremely beneficial for users. It gives your audience the best mobile experience. With best user experience, it translates to happy readers and equals on-page engagement. In other words, it means better SEO.

However, you still want to consider your particular case. Does your site fit within the minority of sites? Would it be better to have simply a separate mobile website to bring substantial benefits to your audience?

When you consider those things, you shouldn’t ask whether the design is good for SEO. Rather, you should consider whether your design is great for your readers and your content. Remember that your readers and your site’s content are more valuable in the long run as they offer the most significant impact on SEO.

If you have a fat wallet, and your content needs to have a separate mobile website to serve your audience well, then you should consider a mobile-specific site. However, if a separate mobile site is too expensive for you, then having a mobile responsive design is your better bet.