When is responsive design useful and when is it not?

As early as 2012, mobile marketing was considered one of the most important online marketing channels, and nothing has changed in that forecast to this day. Users with smartphones and other mobile devices continue to become more important for website and online shop operators; this year, many companies can no longer ignore local mobile website optimization. One of the new standards in mobile optimization is the so-called responsive design.

What does responsive design mean?

With a responsive design, there is only one version of the website that automatically adjusts to the size of the screen on desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Instead of a separate, stripped-down mobile version of the website, the mobile user practically sees all the content that the desktop visitor sees, albeit in a mobile-readable form. The elements adapt in size, shape, and arrangement according to the size of the browser window.

Responsive design and search engine optimization

From an SEO perspective, responsive design is a good solution because it avoids duplicate content, offers good usability, and allows link building to be concentrated on one version of the website or online shop. Google itself also recommends responsive design for mobile-optimized websites:Google recommends webmasters follow the industry best practice of using responsive web design, namely serving the same HTML for all devices and using only CSS media queries to decide the rendering on each device.

However, the next point suggests that responsive design is not always the best solution:

If responsive design is not the best option to serve your users, Google supports having your content being served using different HTML. The different HTML can be on the same URL or on different URLs, and Googlebot can handle both setups appropriately if you follow our recommendations.

This raises the question:

When is responsive design not the best choice?

The first decision to be made is whether a mobile website is necessary at all. This can be determined by looking at the share of mobile users in web analytics.

In the second step, it should be determined how the desktop version of the site appears on mobile devices: Are the most important information and functions visible and usable? Which elements are particularly important to mobile visitors?

Despite all its advantages, responsive design also has some drawbacks:

• The programming of a site with responsive design can be significantly more complex than implementing a traditional desktop site and a separate mobile site, as it involves a completely new approach.

• Large sites with a very high number of elements require a very long loading time on a mobile device and can also appear confusing.

• Websites with a very large number of subpages require a significant effort if all pages are to be implemented in responsive design.

Furthermore, there are other points to consider:

• Are the needs of mobile and non-mobile users identical or fundamentally different? Here, too, analytics can help reveal how desktop visitors and mobile visitors move through the site. (Note: Differences naturally arise because a site is not optimized for mobile users and, in the worst-case scenario, is not usable at all.) For mobile visitors, the opening hours and location of a business may be more important than the products or company profile.

• Mobile visitors often search differently than desktop users. A separate mobile version of a website can be better optimized for these keywords than a website in responsive design. Using the Google Keyword Tool, you can analyze which keywords mobile users use when searching.

[/vc_column_text][us_btn text="SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER NOW" align="center" link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.internetwarriors.de%2Fwissen%2Fnewsletter-abonnieren%2F|||" el_class="cta_button_blog"][vc_empty_space height="20px"][vc_column_text]Conclusion: Whether responsive design is the right choice for mobile optimization of a website or online shop depends on many factors on the site itself, as well as the needs of the target audience. Separate versions can also be SEO and usability optimized and may be preferable in some cases.

Are you unsure about which implementation of a mobile website is suitable for you and which points need to be considered from an SEO and usability perspective? Our experts are happy to advise you on all aspects of mobile marketing. Contact us!