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Will this be one of googles future signals?

by Blaine Smitley
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I'm curious what some of you think.

I know a lot of people are moving to using responsive theme's when they build new sites. What with phones and tablets becoming ever more popular and all.

I was discussing all of this with another IMer today and she suggested that maybe the search engines will someday move responsive or non responsive into their ranking algorithms.

Would a site actually get ranked lower due to it being of standard design? I hope not. I would hate to have to rebuild all of my sites and I see plenty of great sites that are old but still great sites.

Anybody see anything like this on the horizon?
#future #googles #signals
  • Profile picture of the author deane4567
    That is definitely a possibility, (GO TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT...!)
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  • Profile picture of the author netanel23
    Sure it's a possibility, just as any relevant metric may be apart of a the algorithm in the future.

    I believe that Google already uses CTR data and bounce data from SERP results to help refine the results. If a user is browsing on a mobile or tablet and the site isn't optimized for the experience those users will have a higher bounce rate and thus negatively effect the SERP result.

    Thus, in essence not having a mobile friendly or responsive design can likely hurt you. Not to mention the wasted traffic that's bouncing because of a bad user experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
    I think the mobile technology will move faster in advancement of handling current formats, long before the internet ever catches up.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jesse Kemper
    You should definitely focus on responsive design despite Googles implications, just overal better for User Experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
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  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    Responsive design is just a set of CSS rules. Even if a site is using some, it's hard to tell if it's been properly optimized for any particular resolution without taking a set of screencaps and looking at them. Also the modern mobile devices were built to show desktop websites on the small screen.

    Sounds possible, but it's not necessary for Google to react.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi kid,

      Google's algorithm already has features that distinguish notebook/desktop traffic from mobile devices, and serve slightly different results based upon the device.

      I do not think they need to add RWD as a signal since the current algorithm already distinguishes mobile devices and measures user behavior based upon device.

      Make no mistake, I am not implying that you shouldn't use RWD, just the opposite. RWD will have a significant effect on user behavior, and user behavior will have a significant impact on ranking algorithm, therefore RWD already has an effect on ranking, without the search engines needing to add a a new signal to measure.
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      • Profile picture of the author Gary77
        If you take into account a higher bounce rate for sites that are not responsive enough for mobile/tablets then for sure your site will suffer in rankings. A lot of users don't really want to spend time on a site if they have to keep pinching the screen to read parts of your site (unless the content is really good). Think ahead and go responsive - its worth it in the long run.
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  • Profile picture of the author MillionDollarBucks
    you have the right picture of future.Responsive design is obvious for survival.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      No ranking factor...but a tweak in results.

      That is, it has nothing to do with ranking. You still have to rank.

      Google wants sites to now be optimized for mobile viewing. No
      penalty for not doing that, in the true sense of the word.

      I don't buy that mobile optimization jazz anyway. On my dinky
      samsung smartphone, gimme the desktop version anytime... dangit!

      And tablets? I dunno. Aren't they big enough?

      Now here's the sad ending....did you know more and more people are
      doing the web via apps?

      Forget optimizing for mobile. Start thinking app.

      I have been doing websites for a long time. I have always optimized them
      for the smaller screen dimensions anyway. Very few desktop people are
      expanding the universe.

      Google can speak out of both sides of their mouths. They give a huge
      970 banner ad for adsense, and then go for some sort of dynamic sizing.
      Go figure.

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author sweezeter
    Its very possible this can be included in the algorithm. I would love to know all the facets of the algorithm as it stands today. How much does social really play into it? What about the parts of natural link building? So many unanswered questions.

    My philosophy is to make sure that I'm doing all I can do for the overall user experience. Make it a good user experience and you'll do well in Google.
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  • Profile picture of the author KristianKenneth
    Responsive design is the new trend. I've seen a lot of theme makers put this on mind when creating one. However, I experemented on implementing separate blog design for mobile view on my site and I see a decrease in clicks on mobile optimized themes however page views increased.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lynker
    There may be but not heavily, site speed, clean code etc.. Already counted for ranking but most of us don't bother much.
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