Recently, the powers that be at Google issued an official warning, aimed specifically at websites that have ‘critical mobile usability errors’. In simple terms, that’s a warning, directed at solely at individuals and companies that still have yet to make their sites fully usable across all devices, including smart phones and tablets.
What Stance Google is Taking on it?
At present, they are warnings and nothing more; and certainly there’s been no indication that having a non-responsive website will result in any sort of penalty. However, as we’ve seen in the past with Google, warnings tend to act as a type of weather forecast before the storm; so our tentative prediction would be that the search engine may well get more serious about non mobile-friendly sites in the future. If your site isn’t currently fully operational on tablets, smart phones and other devices, now may be the time to get it updated as swiftly as possible.
Mobile-Friendly Sites…What’s the Big Deal?
This is a question that many business owners still like to ask. The reason that Google places such high value on mobile-friendly sites is that increasingly, people use mobile devices to browse online. In fact, 50% of all traffic on Google is now via a device other than a desktop. Google’s sole purpose in life is to bring relevant, user-friendly sites to the top of page one; in order to satisfy the person conducting the search. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, then in Google’s eyes, you’re not offering a ‘user-friendly’ experience.
At present, your ranking won’t suffer if your website isn’t looking its best on tablets and smart phones. However, we’ve seen that rankings can be improved by having fully responsive sites; and in the future, it seems likely that your website will be penalised if it can’t keep up with this growing trend.
How Can You Make Your Site Mobile Friendly?
Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to make your site fully responsive across all devices. In a nutshell, you’ll need a professional web designer to examine your site and reconfigure or redesign it for you. However, it’s likely to be money well invested. After all, if half of your potential customers are searching for your services using mobile devices, it makes sense to create a site that accommodates their requirements.
ARC Creative will discuss ways in which you can lay out the site, and will also offer suggestions to ensure that the design is appealing (and readable!) across all devices. They will also be able to use mobile optimization best practices, to help boost your Google rankings.
Make sure that your site:
• Is quick to load. Google really doesn’t like sites that take a long time to download.
• Doesn’t use Flash. Mobile browsers often struggle to access Flash content; so our recommendation is to avoid using it.
• Is readable. Content needs to be equally clear on both mobile and desktop devices.
How To Check If Your Site Mobile Friendly?
If you want to find out more about how to make your existing site fully mobile-friendly, just get in touch me today. You can call me 216-780-3571.