Is My Website Mobile Friendly?
More and more we should be asking ourselves, “Is my website mobile friendly”? Earlier this year Google made an unprecedented announcement that it was going to give an advantage to mobile friendly websites when it came to google searches on mobile devices. Is it not therefore time to see if your website fits the bill?
On the 21st April 2015 Google stated that “We’re boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results”.
As mentioned in our previous post, Google are now all about “User Experience” and they don’t want users flicking and expanding their screens to see content or clicking on the wrong link because the spacing is too close.
This new approach does only affect searches on mobile devices so you should not see any difference in your ranking when searched for on desktops or laptops. It is also not the only feature that Google use in their algorithm. However, every little helps and as more and more people search for services on mobile devices it will become a more important feature.
When you do search for something using Google from a mobile device the search results for a mobile friendly site will come back highlighted with the term “mobile friendly” at the start of the snippet. It doesn’t mean all those sites that are mobile friendly are at the top of the list and those that are not are at the bottom. However, if you want to start rising up the mobile rankings, consider making your wesite mobile friendly.
How Do I Know If My Website Is Mobile Friendly?
You can, of course search for your website on a mobile device. Be careful though that this can skew your stats if you use google analytics or similar. A better alternative is to use Google’s own Mobile Friendly Test. Here you can add your URL and check whether Google sees your site as mobile friendly or not.
You even get an opportunity to tell the world that you have a mobile friendly website by hitting the google+1 button just above the result.
What If I Don’t Pass The Mobile Friendly Test?
If your site doesn’t pass the test, then Google will present you information as to how to fix your site. They may lead you to another test which can be a little misleading. It tests the speed of your site when loading and some of the things it asks you to fix are close to impossible for some sites. You just need to look at Google’s own site and another example, Facebook when it comes to the speed test.
Is My Website Mobile Friendly? – Google and Facebook!
With this speed test I suggest that you are looking for the “User Experience” score to be in the 90s and most definitely green in colour.
If you have failed any of these tests then it may not be as bad as it seems and there may be an easy fix for you. Just ask your web designer what needs to be done and soon you may be marching up the mobile rankings! Start by asking yourself the question “Is my website mobile friendly”? and take it from there!
Thanks for reading.