The Benefits of Responsive Websites
In the last few years, the use of mobile phones and tablets for internet use has skyrocketed, so much so that in the last 12 months mobile overtook desktop as the first choice device of internet users. This boom of mobile use has been an area of stress for many companies with an online presence as many believed they had to invest in two versions of their websites – one for desktop and another for mobile.
Thankfully, those days are now over thanks to responsive websites which can allow your company to have a single site that functions for both desktop and mobile users. Responsive websites are different from mobile-friendly websites as mobile-friendly sites will look good on mobile devices but still have glitches and be harder to navigate on some devices. Responsive websites on the other hand allows your single site to adapt to any screen size it is being viewed on.
Aside from the obvious cost savings of having to build and/or maintain one website rather than two, responsive websites offer many more benefits that you may not already be aware of.
No Duplicate Content Penalty
Another point to keep in mind with two versions of your website is the fact that you’re essentially creating duplicate content. While search engines are getting smarter by the day, they still need to understand which website version is more important. If you’re using a mobile version of your site, your content remains the same even if the URL is different.
Simpler Website Analytics
When you’ve got two distinct versions of your website, you need to keep track of two set of website analytics so you know where your visitors are coming from and how they interact with your content. This means you need to keep track of multiple signup and thank you pages, conversion points, funnels, and more.
With a responsive site, on the other hand, your website stats are greatly simplified as you’re staying on top of a single set of data. You can still get insight into which devices and browsers your visitors are using, where they drop off, and how long they spend on your site, but you won’t need to read data from multiple reports to get an accurate picture.
Better Backlinks
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that a responsive website can help you when it comes to building backlinks. Backlinks play an important role in any SEO strategy because they show search engines that other websites consider your site a reputable source of information. If your site isn’t responsive, other websites will be less inclined to link to you. After all, linking to a website that doesn’t provide good user experience makes them look bad as well.
