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Thanks Marcus. Nice article. There are arguments to and for the various ways to approach things especially as you say when user experience (load time) can be impacted and also of course when considering the particular client in question. But as you say in the article not only is Google recommending the responsive approach but it does have SEO management benefits.

Good chatting with you.

Hey Marcus,

Many thanks for your thoughts. So if I'm reading this correctly, you went with same URLS and check user agent on the server and then serve back the same content but a different CSS, which then controls the display of elements accordingly. This as opposed to building in rules in the CSS to control display of elements using media queries which as Google's Developer Site mentions has some advantages given the possible impact of the 'user-agent query' set-up on page load time. My preference would be to control display according to device with media queries but was just wondering whether we'd be penalised for the hidden elements in this manner. As you rightly say though, if the intention is not there to gain but to provide a good user experience, all should be OK!

Cheers, Nick

Hi all, just came across this conversation string when I too was looking for information about SEO implications for responsive design and whether Google would penalise sites who were hiding elements using on a page with CSS with good intentions. I know hiding text blocks is generally a no-no but in some situations it might be preferable from a user experience point of view when they are accessing via a mobile device.

MPO - how did you get on with your project. Any thoughts?

Andreas - you mentioned some research you were doing in this area. Have you come to any further conclusions?

Thanks, Nick