Responsive website design is optimizing one website for ANY screen size and ANY device.
The Advantages
User Friendly – This is the most obvious of all the advantages. As mentioned above responsive website design makes your website optimized for any device and screen size. Every time a new device comes out, your site will already be optimized for it. If the user doesn’t have to think twice on how to use your site, regardless of device, then your conversion rate increases. If your web identity is consistent on all devices, the usability goes up and you retain current customers and gain new ones. Responsive web design = great usability.
Google Recommends – It’s true. Last year, Google officially recommended responsive website design for search engine optimization. Like that article states, “Google can discover your content more efficiently as we wouldn’t need to crawl a page with the different Googlebot user agents to retrieve and index all the content.” This leads into the next advantage…
One URL – This is one of the biggest advantages of responsive website design. Having one site with one set of content means no redirects for users, no user-agent targeting, and less maintenance for the site. This is another benefit to usability as well. All of your users receive a consistent experience and are not limited because of their device. Plus, Google recommends having one URL. Increased SEO The two mentioned above go hand in hand when increasing your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If separate sites are created for each type of device, then there will be numerous links and numerous redirects. This causes useless load time on the server. Responsive website design eliminates those issues with just one website and one set of links.
Saves Time and Money – In the end, you save time and money in creating a responsive website design site. With less maintenance, it is easier for you or your website developer to update content, which costs you less time and money. You are future-proofing your website against new devices and screen sizes.