The other night was pizza night. I was on my way home from work and searched for a local pizzeria on my iPhone. What appeared was the business’s website which was intended for viewing on a desktop computer, only the text, pictures and links were shrunk to miniature size and crammed on my mobile screen. It’s annoying isn’t it? Google thinks so too.
We’re a society that’s always on the go. Gone are the days of being tied to a clunky computer, or even a laptop. Half of all Internet users browse the web primarily on their mobile device. In fact, mobile web surfing is predicted to overtake desktop usage this year.
Consider these facts:
- 90% of smartphone searches result in an action, like a click to call, find your location, or make an appointment. [tweet this]
- More than half of people searching on a smartphone will make a purchase [tweet this]
- 47% of consumers confirm they use their smartphone to search for local information. [tweet this]
- Mobile search will generate 27.8 billion more queries than desktop search by 2016. [tweet this]
Is your website Google mobile-friendly compliant?
In January, Google changed their search algorithms to reward mobile-friendly websites, and penalize sites that are NOT mobile-friendly. As a result, if your website does not meet Google’s new mobile-friendly requirements, traffic from Google will be practically non-existent, your site’s Google ranking will plummet, and your clients and prospects will have a difficult time finding your website.
In terms of revenue, that’s like having your business closed one day a week.
Fortunately, Google provides this Mobile Friendly Test where you can determine if your site meets their new requirements for mobile website design.
How does your website look on a mobile device?
The key to having a good mobile website is to keep it simple and easy to navigate. If a mobile site is too cumbersome or slow, or users have to pinch and pull to navigate the site on their smartphone, they’re likely to search a competitor site within 5 seconds or less.
When was the last time you looked at your website on a mobile device? You can use our simple tool to preview how your mobile website would look.
Mobile website vs. Responsive web design
If a website redesign is part of your inbound marketing plan this year, it’s best practice to build your new site using responsive website design. Responsive web development uses enhanced website coding, like jQuery and JavaScript, to ensure that your new website adjusts automatically to the screen size of mobile devices as well as desktop browsers.
Responsive websites will even adapt to mobile screens when viewed either vertically or when turned horizontally, often condensing elements such as images and navigation for the best fit.
If redesigning your company website is not in the budget this year, then a separate, mobile optimized website may be the solution. It’s not as difficult or expensive as it seems. Advanced technology can convert your existing desktop site into a mobile friendly website and visitors that view your site on their mobile device are automatically redirected to your mobile website. Plug-ins, such as a click-to-call or click-for-map, can be added to make the mobile website experience even more relevant and improve conversion.
Whether you plan to redesign a responsive website or develop a mobile optimized site, having a mobile website and being Google compliant has become extremely important to your company’s bottom line.
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