People exploring the Internet do not just use their desktop computers to do so anymore. They also use smart phones and other mobile devices to surf the web as well. While this can be very convenient for users, as they can log onto the Internet anywhere they go, it also means that website developers must consider both traditional computers and mobile devices when designing their webpages so that their webpages will load correctly and quickly no matter which device users are accessing them from.
There are three ways to make webpages accessible for both computers and mobile devices: buy PR domains, using dynamic serving, redirecting users to a separate mobile version of the webpage and using responsive web design. With dynamic serving, webpages use the same URL for every type of device that accesses them. However, the HTML the device reads varies based on the type of device that is reading the page. This method is advantageous because it only uses one URL for the site. The problem with this method, however, is that the Googlebots may not notice the mobile set of HTML, so the website developer may have to alert the Googlebots that the content is there.
The website developer can also choose to redirect mobile users to a separate mobile version of the webpage so the content the user’s mobile device reads is geared specifically for mobile devices. While it can be nice to have a customized mobile site, this solution has a few drawbacks. The redirect causes the page to take longer to load. Also, the separate URLs can decrease page rank if not set up correctly.
Lastly, web developers and Phoenix SEO clients can also choose to use responsive web design. Responsive web design simply means that pages can be viewed correctly no matter which type of device is accessing them. There is only one URL for the site and all devices read the same HTML. CSS is used to allow the page dimensions and content layout to shift to fit in the smaller mobile screen. As long as Googlebot and Googlebot-Mobile are allowed to crawl the pages, this reconfiguration should happen automatically.
Responsive web design offers several advantages for website developers. First of all, the webpage only uses one URL, which makes the content easier to interact with, share and index. It also avoids the problem of having two separate pages that decrease each other’s page rank. There is no page redirect, so pages load faster.
Because pages are accessible to more types of devices, more people who click on the website link will stay on the page and find the information they are looking for. The increased page views and time spent on the pages should lead to a higher Google page rank. Lastly, responsive web design is the method recommended by Google.
While any of the three methods of offering both computer and mobile webpages will work, responsive web design is the one that works best for the website user, this is the method Internet Marketing Team uses for our sites and our customers. And most importantly the one that is most likely to bring SEO benefits to our Phoenix and national customers.