Google Mobile Friendly Questions
There seem to be a lot of Google Mobile Friendly Questions that we have been asked lately. We will attempt to simplify what is happening and how it might affect you.
By now, most of us have heard about Google’s Mobilegeddon algorithm change that was rolled out on April 21, 2015. With this update, a major emphasis is being placed on mobile friendly websites.
Some studies show that approximately 40% of all searches are being performed on a mobile device. Google feels that sites that are Mobile Friendly will produce a better user experience. Therefore, sites that are not Mobile Friendly will rank lower in their search engine results.
Google Mobile Friendly Test
Click on this link to check if your website to see if it is Mobile Friendly
Here you can see that the i360 Group website is Mobile Friendly. YEAH!
At this point, if you are satisfied with the way your website responds to users looking to interact, you can move on to something else.
However, just because is passed the Google test, doesn’t mean that your website serves the best experience for your mobile customers.
A Mobile Adaptive Design serves only the CONTENT that you feel a mobile user would benefit from. This is different from a Mobile Friendly site that simply adjusts to smaller screen sizes. We will see more Mobile Adaptive websites in the future.
This image shows an unidentified company that is NOT Mobile Friendly, and it list the areas where the page in non-compliant.
Basically, it is saying that the average finger width is 10 mm, and the text and links are too small for a fat finger to manipulate.
Mobile Ready Fixes and Potential Solutions
On the right side of the results screen, Google offers explanations and potential solutions or remedies to make the page Mobile Friendly.
The best method is to re-build the site using a Mobile Responsive framework. Many popular CMS’s such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal have development frameworks that are Mobile Responsive.
Mobile Responsive Design means that when a page is called, it determines the type of device, and renders a user experience optimized for that device or screen resolution.
If you cannot re-build at this time, you may be able to add a WordPress Plug-in or Joomla Extension that can make a separate Mobile Friendly site using your existing content and structure. These work fairly well as a temporary fix.
Finally, if you aren’t using one fo the popular CMS’s, you can build a separate Mobile Friendly website using some relatively inexpensive mobile website building tools. This is also a temporary fix.
We hope that we have answered your Google Mobile Friendly Questions regarding Google’s Mobilegeddon.