Google: Responsive Design Doesn't Give You A Ranking Boost

Oct 18, 2013 - 8:29 am 22 by

Responsive Web Design & GoogleGoogle's John Mueller posted in a Stack Exchange thread that responsive design doesn't give you a ranking boost.

Yes, Google does officially recommend responsive as the approach to going mobile. But going responsive, doesn't give you more of a ranking boost that using any of the three accepted approaches to smartphone optimized sites.

Google does demote non-mobile friendly smartphone sites from ranking so well on mobile. And if you mess up with the techniques, they can hurt.

But responsive over different HTML with same URL, doesn't necessarily give you a ranking boost.

Google's John Mueller said:

No. Google currently doesn't differentiate sites like that.

You may see indirect effects (smartphone users liking your responsive site and recommending it to others), but we don't use that as a ranking factor. We are starting to use common configuration errors to adjust the rankings in smartphone search results though.

Forum discussion at Stack Exchange.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 7, 2025

Nov 7, 2025 - 10:01 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Drops Search Features, Tests AI Mode Responses, Ad Click Trickery & More

Nov 7, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Ads

New Google Merchant Center Preferred Audience Targeting For Promotions

Nov 7, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Performance Max Gains Waze Ads & Channel Performance Reporting

Nov 7, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Finance Gets Live Audio, Instant Transcripts & AI Insights

Nov 7, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Merchant Center Adds Creative Content Section

Nov 7, 2025 - 7:21 am
 
Previous Story: Google: Stop Using Fake Google+ Profiles To Trick Users