Google Mobile Friendly is a search engine update that is due to take effect from April 21st. It’s very important for businesses as it affects the way that your website is ranked by Google and is therefore likely to affect traffic to your website.
Google Mobile Friendly is a recognition that the behaviours of the browsing public have changed. More and more use is being made of mobile devices for browsing and searching. Google is responding by prefering websites that display well on mobile devices.
Here’s how it works. Google will start to check if a website is easy to view on a mobile device. If the website requires a lot of horizontal scrolling and pinching, it won’t be well regarded. Likewise if images are heavy and don’t resize. Slow loading, bloated pages and Flash are likely to be marked down.
Google is looking for websites designed with Responsive Web Design, that reconfigure to require vertical scrolling only and are quick to load. Because these are the websites that provide the best experience for mobile device users. Obviously websites still need to be relevant, up to date and properly planned – just like they have always needed to be!
What should I do?
Google have provided a helpful tool that tells you how Google regards your website.
Google Mobile Friendly Test Tool
Visit the link above and enter the address of your website and hit the Analyze button. After the analysis, you will move to a screen which shows how Google thinks your website will appear on a mobile. There will also be a statement whether Google thinks your website is Mobile Friendly. If everything looks good, great, but remember you still need to be updating your website on a regular basis to keep it fresh and relevant.
If you get an error or Google considers your website to be Mobile Unfriendly, you need to consider what to do. Your search rankings will suffer if your website tests unfavourably.
Contact Us
Vapour Trail have over 10 years experience building websites. We don’t have fast talking sales people, you talk to a website designer. We will be happy to provide a free consulatation and provide a sensible set of options for updating your website.
Call 020 3129 6259 or email info@vapourtrail.biz
Google Mobile Friendly
It’s a fact of life and it’s happening soon. Be prepared!
Woman using a smartphone image by Ed Yourdon