What are the Benefits of Responsive Design?
In 2015, Google famously updated its search algorithm to prioritize websites that displayed its contents well on mobile, tablets and other viewing devices. For the first time, it was made crystal clear: responsive design matters for SEO. As of 2018, Google is also doing something called mobile-first indexing, which essentially means that Google crawlers are viewing your website as displayed on mobile, rather than as displayed on the desktop.
Beyond satisfying Google, here are a few more reasons why you’ll benefit from implementing responsive design for your website:
Responsive Design Improves Website Usability
Websites that are poorly optimized for mobile provide a less-than-stellar experience for consumers. If your website is built with fixed-width elements, mobile users may have to choose an alternate viewing option to see some elements of your page. They may have a difficult time navigating to the information they want, and the text may be too small for them to comfortably read.
Unless you’re selling detective equipment, the customer journey should almost never include a magnifying glass. Simply making your website user-friendly for visitors on different devices increases the likelihood of converting those visitors into prospects.
Responsive Design Helps Decrease Bounce Rate
Search engines track user behavior on your website, including your bounce rate, a measure of how frequently visitors land on your page and leave within a short time without interacting. High bounce rates will result in SEO penalties that affect your search rankings, as Google will believe that your content was not relevant to the needs of the user. In fact, your content might be totally relevant – it just isn’t being displayed in a way that’s very user-friendly.
Responsive design helps your website make the best first impression for users with all devices, so they’ll stay long enough to find the value that you’re offering.
Responsive Design Optimizes Social Sharing
Responsive design ensures that every element on your web page is optimized for mobile when necessary, and that includes the social sharing button. Social sharing is a valuable source of free traffic that can help grow your audience and brand value.

Achieve Mobile Marketing Success with Directive Consulting
Responsive design – making your website look great on mobile devices and tablets – is a necessary first step to mobile marketing. Beyond that, there are many steps that businesses can take to optimize their digital marketing campaigns for mobile, and that’s where Directive Consulting can help.
We’ve mastered the intricacies of mobile marketing, including techniques like content networking, optimizing content for social channels, and semantic/voice search. We can help you market your business on mobile, starting with a responsive website design that optimizes your website presentation for prospective customers, however, they choose to find you.
Ready to learn more? Get in touch and we’ll send you a free proposal.