One of the most beloved aspects of WordPress as a content management system is that it makes SEO easier to manage and improve on a site-wide basis, mainly due to the extensive library of SEO plugins and add-ons that the CMS has become famous for. However, in addition to providing a simple way to install and utilize powerful extensions, WordPress also allows for the quick and easy installation of themes that incorporate responsive design elements, which make it possible for your pages to be viewed ideally on any display size, browser type, operating system, or device. You probably know that responsive design can make a site more user-friendly, but did you know that it can work wonders for SEO as well?
1. Decreasing Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is a metric used to determine the percentage of visitors who leave your site after only visiting a single page. Obviously, if your site isn’t set up to look good on every mobile device, then there’s a good chance that a significant majority of your mobile visitors will be bouncing off the site after seeing that the first page looks horrible on their device. On the other hand, when a mobile user notices that pages are loading fast and look great on their device, there’s a great chance they’ll want to keep browsing the site, especially if the site easy to navigate due to effective mobile menus and interlinking.
2. Increasing Page Visit Time
According to Sioux Falls SEO specialists, the amount of time a visitor spends on a page is one of the most important metrics to consider, as it directly indicates how engaging and useful your site is. Search engines know this all too well, which is why page visit times can have a huge impact on whether a page is able to rank highly in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Themes that include responsive design features are able to keep more visitors on the site longer because there are no display compatibility issues that would otherwise cause them to leave prematurely.
3. Promoting Return Visits
Finally, themes that include responsive design improve SEO and overall site traffic by motivating visitors to return for repeat visits to the site. Of course, a site that doesn’t have responsive design will find it more difficult to retain an audience of mobile users, and being that mobile browsing has exceeded desktop browsing as of 2014, non-responsive sites are losing a huge chunk of their potential visitors.
Not All Responsive Design Themes Are Created Equal
Before you go rushing to install just any theme that includes responsive design as a feature, keep in mind that each theme will “respond” to a device in a different way, so preference and experimentation still plays a huge role here. Thus, whenever you’ve installed a theme that supposedly includes responsive design elements, be sure to test all of the pages on your site from every device you can get your hands on to ensure the utmost visibility and compatibility.