What is a responsive WordPress template?

Getting to the bottom line, a responsive WordPress site is a website that adapts it's look the way it should on whatever device, like an iPhone on which it is being viewed.

Responsive WordPress design is a hot topic a lot of WordPress design experts talk about. And considering the importance of responsiveness and all the talk super-impressive the sheer number of WordPress websites that haven't gotten into the responsiveness revolution. By now, with the impressive rise of mobile usage, every WordPress website should be responsive to give them the ability to attend to every user's "screen size needs."

As iPhone, Android and tablet usage rapidly rises, so does the need for mobile-friendly sites.

If SEO is a core component of your digital marketing strategy, ensuring that your site is a mobile-friendly web page is becoming essential.

Mobile sales the sale of desktop computers, and use of mobile devices on the internet is predicted to overtake desktop internet use soon. It's becoming more evident that mobile search will pass desktop searches very soon too.

Since about two in three users admit that they are measurably more likely to purchase from a mobile-friendly WordPress website, E-Commerce websites that rely on SEO should definitely begin making the change to mobile-friendly sites, and in particular, to responsive web design.

The decision of whether to opt for a responsive website or just a separate website is a much talked about topic. But, the truth is that both sides of the coin have their ups and downs.

The choice that is right for your business depends on many factors, like the purpose of the site, the intended target audience, and whether or not SEO is a crucial factor.

If SEO is something you're thinking about, here are three reasons why a site with responsive web design maybe the very best choice for your mobile SEO strategy.

Google likes it. Google loves responsive design. search market share, when the biggest search platform Google shares advice, search marketers take note. Google states that responsive framework is its preferred mobile configuration, and they even go so far as to call responsive web design as the web design industry best practice.

Why? Well, it's because sites that are responsive have just one URL and use the same HTML, no matter the device, which makes it easier and a lot more efficient for Google to crawl, index, and organize content. Contrast this with a completely separate mobile site which has a completely different URL and different HTML than its non mobile counterpart, which requires Google to slowly crawl and index at least two versions of the same website.

Additionally, Google wants responsive web designbecause of the fact that content that lives on one web page and just the one URL is much easier for users to share, interact with, and link to than content that lives in several places.

Take for example a mobile user who shares photographs from a mobile site with her friend on Facebook who then looks at that content using a desktop, which means that that user viewing a bad looking mobile site on their desktop. This creates a not-so-great experience for the user, and because of the large emphasis Google is now putting on positive user experience as a SERP ranking factor, this is essential to think about with regards to SEO.

One web page, Many Screen Types

One of the most appealing aspects of responsive design is that a well crafted responsive website can give a really good user-experience across all of the difference devices and screen sizes. This is a vital characteristic, since it is nearly impossible to anticipate all the gadgets and screen sizes people will make use of to access your site in the future. A website that functions properly regardless of these variables will give a better and more dependable user-experience than a distinct mobile website that is created for a specific device and screen size.

Let's take the following example. Someone searches for a product on their iPhone during a lunch break at the office. They find a site that has something they're looking for, and decide to continue looking at this widget on the same site after they leave the office. The only problem is, when they get home, they will use their desktop computer rather than their Smartphone.

If the website in this case is a responsive website, our shopper will have a great user-experience when transitioning from mobile to desktop because it will be the same appearance on their home computer as they had on their mobile device. On the flip side, if the site is a dedicated mobile website, the user may become disillusioned with the fact that they have to search for the desktop version of the site, and locate the product they had searched long and hard for all over again.

Simpler to Maintain

Using a a separate desktop and mobile site necessitates having separate SEO campaigns. Managing one site and one SEO campaign is far easier than managing two sites and two SEO campaigns. This is a key advantage a responsive web page has over a separate mobile website.

That being said, there absolutely benefits to using a mobile-specific search optimization plan, such as optimizing for words that are more likely to be used when a searcher is browsing the web on their Smartphone.

For instance, a person searching on a mobile device for a restaurant may be more inclined to type "nearby" in their query. But, a separate mobile website is not a hard and fast requirement for a device friendly SEO strategy, and there's little reason why some type of mobile-specific key words can't be utilized in a responsive design as well.

In Conclusion

A tightly constructed responsive design is well loved by Google, it lets one website to provide a much better experience across multiple types of devices, and it can also make managing your search engine optimization strategy much easier. For these reasons, a well crafted responsive design is absolutely the best choice for your mobile SEO tactic.

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