Is it worth changing themes to be Responsive, and risk a SERP change?

[bizzer]

I've got a site that ranks #1 for it's term. It's Worpress on Thesis 1.85.  The site is not responsive and cannot be because Thesis 1x is not (and Thesis 1x is a dead end). I really would like my site responsive, but I fear changing things might affect my #1 rank.

The least impactful change I could do is move to Thesis 2.x, but I have come to really dislike the company and hate to get locked in again.  There are other frameworks I would prefer to move to, but their impact on my pages' source would be much more.

So, my question is, is it worth moving to a new theme (keeping the layout looking exactly the same, although the "source" would look different) just to make the site responsive? Is it that important?

[bridget.randolph]

Hi bizzer,

Everyone should ideally have a mobile-friendly website, because the percentage of people accessing your site on mobile devices will only continue to increase. And if you already have a Wordpress site, switching to a responsive theme is a great way to achieve that. But...as you note, there are other considerations, such as potentially lost rankings.

Only you know how much of a drop you can afford. It's a short-term sacrifice for long-term results.

Generally speaking, my recommendation would always be that if you can possibly do it, you should. And Miki and Moosa made some good suggestions above for how to minimise the negative impact somewhat. Combined with good technical SEO going into the new source code, you should hopefully be able to regain your position fairly quickly.

To answer your follow-up question: we don't know for sure, but it seems likely that having a mobile-friendly website could be a quality factor, whether now or later. Google have certainly discussed best practice guidelines for mobile, which seems to indicate that a good mobile experience is something which they care about. Apart from anything else, ~60% of mobile users will bounce if they land on a non-mobile-friendly site and go to a competitor, so that in itself will send a negative signal if you have a significant amount of mobile traffic. (and 15-20% isn't too shabby - even if some of that is tablet traffic, a responsive design will provide a better experience for them as well).

Hope that helps!

[bizzer]

Well, I have about 15-20% coming from mobile devices. However not all of them are phone-size, some are ipad size.  But I'm sure the number will be growing.

But let me ask this follow-on question. At the moment, I'm more concerned with  how my site ranks in desktop Google, rather than mobile Google.  So, in order to help make my decision, does having a website that is responsive, also help my desktop SERP position?  I know it does not directly affect it, but perhaps it might indirectly, as Google could use it as a quality factor. You know, like "hey this site isn't even mobile, let's take a few points off the ranking score on desktop."  They are always trying to calculate which are the quality sites, the ones that the owner is serious about.

[JMacSupply]

It will depend on your industry and what type of customers you are looking to target. If making the site responsive will cause a strong influx of traffic to the website (i.e. if many of your users are from a mobile device), it may be worth the move. It is important to remember that SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. The long term results of changing your website may be worth the sacrifice of a short lived top ranking.

Whenever the topic of possibly sacrificing current position for future growth potential arises, you must first evaluate how beneficial can a move like this be? Will it attract a market that has been neglected up until now? and if it does drop in rankings how will that affect revenue and are you in the right position to regain your spot on top?

Two important things to remember in preparation of a change like this is:

1. Make backups of your site as insurance.
2. Try to gain as many quality links and boost your social media presence as much as possible before the change. This will help regain the top spot if it does hurt the ranking.

Hope this helped!

[Saijo.George]

I would first start by looking at how much of your visitors are on mobile devices and then base my decision on that.

[MoosaHemani]

Whenever I stuck with such a situation on my client’s side I usually prefer to make changes in order to make website design a more responsive and user friendly because in the longer run Google and other search engines are actually working on tracking the HQ website that should be loved by users...

But before implementing the final changes makes a website promotional plan in terms of social and getting more quality links to the website... this way if you lose the first spot chances are that will be for temporary period only and you will regain your position within days and weeks!

Hope this helps!

[InMarketingWeTrust]

There is no set defined answer really. There are a few factors and each case will be different. Ultimately, it will come to a trade off on whether you feel the update will bring you enough value to the possibility of losing the top spot.

One comparison may be to value how much the SEO would cost to bring it back to the number 1 spot after a fall verses how much not changing will affect your business.

Please ensure that you have backed up EVERYTHING. Data corruption always hits the unexpected.