What Are The Hazards to Changing Over to Responsive Web Design?
-
We have recently re-programmed our website to Responsive Web Design. All the URLs have remained the same, all the content is unchanged. We have this new version sitting on a development server and are finding ourselves hesitant to make the changeover. Our rankings are great currently, and our question is whether or not there are any risks that we will incur by making this change. We would appreciate any advice on how to implement this change safely. Or if that's it's even possible to insure that there won't be ranking losses.
-
Wow! Thanks, Jeff. Can't tell you how much we appreciate your efforts here. It's great to have the wider based testing in addition to our own. Thanks also for your footer suggestion. We always used to have footer links and when we changed over to WordPress, because our menus are html now, we dropped them. But you offer a great reason to put them back in. We need to make a widget spot for that and I am considering some text changes for the Home page, so we won't be launching the Responsive site until those are completed. Thanks again!!!
-
Gina -
I've attached a few screenshots showing how the site displays in different widths. The site performs pretty well in the different widths, as you can see. The portfolio page works well, as does the contact information page.
I'd recommend putting in a footer navigation, as a mobile user who is on the bottom of the page might want to navigate that way instead of trying to scroll back up the top of the page.
The menu seems to work well at the tablet size and the smart phone size as well.
Personally, I think that the new responsive site layout is much better than the existing site. The live site has huge, dense blocks of text that make my eyes gloss over, overwhelmed by the volume of content.
Hope this helps!
-- Jeff
fat-eyes-desktop-version.jpg fat-eyes-tablet-version.jpg fat-eyes-iPhone-Version.jpg fat-eyes-phone-layout-menu.jpg
-
Thanks so much, Peter. We actually do have a redesign percolating but that's for later and not to be mixed up with this switch to Responsive. ;o)
-
Hi Jeff,
Here is the link to the dev site: websitetestingserver.com/fateImportant to note is that I just learned that the dev site isn't fully up to date with our current, live site: http://www.fateyes.com.
For instance, the blog directory is several months behind and some of the thumbnail images are missing. This has to be corrected. Not sure why they didn't bring it all over. So before we replace it, it will be fully updated and reviewed. Also, the social counts are missing and/or off but I imagine those will correct to the live site once the transfer is made.
Not sure if this renders your taking a look ill-timed and if it would be better to wait until I can have the guys get it tip top. Please let me know what you think. Thanks again!!! Your help is much appreciated.
-
Hi Gina
I agree with Jeff's comments. If it's a good design and works well then both your current and future customers will all benefit.
Peter
-
Thanks so much, Jeff. I would love to post the link and have you take a look. That would be a terrific help. I don't have the address but as soon as my partner gets back in, I'll ask him for it and post it here.
-
We've recently launched a number of responsive designs for eCommerce companies.
I'd love to tell you that there is zero risk in launching with the new site from a rankings perspective, but because you kept all of the content and the URL structure the same, you've mitigated a lot of the risk.
Google has come out in the past and said that it prefers a responsive design framework, as opposed to an m-dot mobile site + a desktop site, as it doesn't have to worry about duplicate content.
That said, most of the risk is going to be based on how well the responsive site actually performs when a user is on a desktop, tablet and phone.
If the design works well, and isn't confusing to the end user, then go for it.
But if the design is buggy or looks a lot worse (due to the limitations of responsive design), maybe do a bit more testing.
If you'd like, post a link to the site and I'm happy to take a look at how it looks on different devices...
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What website changes (technical) SEOs can ignore confidently? Google's perspective!
Hi community members, I am looking after SEO at our company and there are lots of changes happening about our website; especially technical changes. It's hard for me to look after every deployment of the website like change of server location, etc. We generally agree that every change related to website must be notified by SEO to understand the ranking fluctuation and how search engines welcome them. I just wonder what technical deployments of a website I could confidently ignore to save time and give a go ahead to technical team without interrupting or waiting for my approval. Thanks
Web Design | | vtmoz1 -
Dedicated landing pages vs responsive web design
I've been doing some research into web design and page layout as my company is considering a re-design. However, we have come to an argument around responsive webdesign vs SEO. The argument is around me (SEO specialist) arguing that I want dedicated pages for all my content as it's good for SEO since it focuses keywords and content properly, and it still adheres to good user journeys (providing it's done correctly), and my web designer arguing that mobile traffic is on the rise (which it is I know) so we should have more content under 1 URL and use responsive web design so that users can just scroll through content instead of having to keep be direct to different pages. What do I do... I can't find any blogs, questions, or whiteboards that really touches on this topic, so can anyone advise me on whether I should: Create dedicated landing pages for each bit of content which is good for SEO and taking users on a journey around my site OR All content that is relative to a landing page, put all under that one URL (e.g. "About us" may have info on the company, our team, our history, careers) and allow people to scroll down what could be a very long page on any device, but may effect SEO as I can't focus keywords/content under one URL properly, so it may effect rankings. Any advice SEO and user experience whizzes out there?
Web Design | | blackboxideas0 -
Going mobile: Responsive or different mobile version?
Going mobile: Responsive or different mobile version?
Web Design | | FCRMediaLietuva
Which one should we choose? Should we do responsive design or should we have a different mobile version and go m.domain.com ? http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2253965/3-reasons-why-responsive-web-design-is-the-best-option-for-your-mobile-seo-strategy I just read this article. It seems that the responsive design is OK, but the first comment kills that opinion and says that it is pretty hard to make it OK. 🙂 So I need more opinions? What is best for people and for SEO?0 -
Best Practices for home page design for ecommerce website
I know this question is not directly related to SEO, but I figured I have been getting some good help from this forum, so why not? The website is www.vrtack.com. I am looking to redesign the home page. It is an ecommerce website selling equestrian clothing and leather goods. My goals are: 1. Reduce the very high bounce rate and drop-off rate. 2. Fine tune the relevancy of the website towards a handful of keyword phrases. 3. Engage the visitor to create better click-through and to increase the average time spent on the page/site. 4. Page Loading time is of importance. It has to load quickly. I would love to hear some specific suggestions, examples, best practices.
Web Design | | amitramani0 -
Wordpress Designer - Have you heard of Jay Hafling?
We are currently browsing around to have a new site built for us as we are not happy with the current one. I checked out webdevstudio and it looks like they build quality sites, but they told me they aren't taking on small projects like mine currently. So browsing around I found this designer from the Ukraine with a nice site and nice portfolio. I am wondering if anyone has worked with him, and maybe to get some opinions on his work? I don't want to make the wrong choice here.. What do you guys think? http://www.jayhafling.com
Web Design | | DemiGR1 -
Changing design for a client. SEO concerns.
Hi there! A client requested me to change the look of his website entirely. It currently ranks #16 on Google with one of their main keywords. My problem is: The current site was made in a CMS I'm not familiar with and all of its pages urls are not SEO friendly (EX: http://www.mysite.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=95). It is the first time I have come up with this situation so I would appreciate any tips or links to useful information. I tried searching in SEOmoz and came up with nothing. I'm sure this is a common problem though. Since they want a static website, for starters their page extensions will change from .php to .html I'm not 100% sure but I think this will be a problem for their current ranking in Google. Any ideas? Edit: I forgot to mention that all of the backlinks this site has points to their hompage as www.mysite.com, I guess this is good.
Web Design | | Eblan0 -
Footer Links for Design Shops - Do They Help or Hurt?
I work on SEO for a number of clients at our agency, including our in-house SEO for our own website. I use Open Site Explorer all the time to analyze my competition in the SERPs and try to gain links from this insight. However, I've noticed a number of agencies and design shops that place a link in the footer of websites they've designed and created. For example "Site design by ABC Agency (hyperlinked to the agency's home page). Or I've seen small logos or graphics that link to the designer's site and use the "alt tag" to get stronger anchor text. From a design perspective, I don't care for this, but as a SEO...I can see why. We've designed a number of websites and have more in the pipeline, but have not used this tactic before. It seems like an irrelevant link from a content/user standpoint, however, it seems to work for a lot of agencies and design shops. Any input from the SEOmoz community would be great. Is it a short-lived strategy? Does it help or hurt your link-building and "rapport" with Google, Bing, Yahoo? Thanks everyone.
Web Design | | PHDL0