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

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Search Engine Optimization

November 2026 Google Webmaster Report

Nov 2, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Gary Illyes Implies Click Data Not Coming To Google Search Console AI Reporting

Nov 2, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Strategists Using AI-Generated Fake Names & Profile Photos

Nov 2, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Reddit Stock Drops 33% After CEO Confirms Declining Google Search Traffic

Nov 2, 2026 - 7:21 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Promotion Offers Within Promotions

Nov 2, 2026 - 7:11 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Adopts New AI Training Control

Oct 30, 2026 - 12:50 pm
Previous Story: Google: Stop Using Fake Google+ Profiles To Trick Users