It’s Good to be Mobile-Friendly

On April 21, 2015 Google Search expanded its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor in mobile searches. Some referred to this as “Mobilegeddon”.

As a followup, Google recently increased the importance of a mobile-friendly site on March 16, 2016.

This leads us to believe that having a mobile-friendly site will continue to become more important over time. But what does “mobile-friendly” mean?

Mobile-friendly is one way of describing responsive design. In short, the layout of the website responds to the display size of the device it’s being viewed on. In general, the layout becomes more vertical on smaller screens. Additionally, the menu should be easier to navigate and information should be presented in a clear, legible fashion.

Each year more and more people are accessing the internet from their smartphones. And why not? It’s almost always by your side, if not in your hand.

For Example

Let’s say it’s getting close to lunch time and you want to see what restaurants are nearby. You pull out your phone, open the Google app and do a quick search. A couple of places look interesting.

Restaurant A’s site is mobile-friendly. It presents itself in a very clear, easy-to-read format. The navigation is easy to use and you quickly find the information you’re looking for.

Restaurant B’s site hasn’t been updated in a few years. Sure, it loads on your phone, but it’s been shrunk down so much that it’s difficult to read. You try to tap the “Daily Specials” button in the menu but end up tapping another menu item instead. Frustrated, you go back to the Google search results and look elsewhere.

Over time, Restaurant B’s site will drop down on the search result pages because it’s not giving mobile visitors a good experience.

Make sure your site isn’t driving away potential customers!

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