Is Your Site Mobile Friendly? It Better Be!
We know you have taken notice. Everywhere you turn, there is someone glued to his or her smartphone. No longer is it just kids texting their friends; us adults are using them too – and for business!
People are in love with their phones and the ability to easily access information at a moments notice. It has been reported, that by the end of 2017, over 2 billion smartphone and tablet users will make a transaction over their mobile device. The problem is, phone and tablet screens are small. Reading and navigating a website through a mobile device can be frustrating. A potential customer who gets frustrated with your site will quickly hit the back button and move on to a competitor’s site. So, the question you have to ask yourself is: "Is my website mobile-friendly?"
If your answer to the question was, "No" or "I don’t know", we are here to tell you why it is so important and how we can help. With the growing use of mobile devices Google has announced that on April 21, a website’s mobile-friendliness will factor into it’s ranking signal.
What does this mean?
Well, if your site isn’t mobile friendly, you will most likely want to prepare yourself for the wrath of Google. They have gone as far as saying this update will "have a significant impact in our search results". When April 21st hits, you can bank on seeing a significant drop in your website’s rankings across mobile devices.
Rankings equal traffic. Traffic equals sales and leads.
If you earn a living from your website, there are probably a handful of questions running through your mind right now.
- How do I know if my site is mobile-friendly or not?
- Is it going to effect MY website and MY business?
- How can I fix this?
- What’s it going to cost to fix it?
Let’s discuss these questions and get you some answers.
Is your website mobile-friendly?
This is the obvious first step; determining if you are ready for the April 21st deadline. Google was kind enough to give us a few tools to use.
Let’s take a look at the second tool. Just plug in a URL from your website and Google will analyze the page. (Note: this tool only analyzes a page, not the entire site)
If you see the following after the analysis – CONGRATULATIONS!
If your results look more like the screenshot below, its time to think about the next steps.
Is Google’s mobile-friendly update going to affect MY business?
With mobile searches and internet users growing, the answer is yes. If you are wondering how soon you should make the changes so your site is mobile-friendly, the answer is most definitely, as soon as possible.
To help you make a smart decision on this, you can always take a look at your site’s statistics and see just how much traffic you are getting through mobile devices. Google Analytics is a great tool to easily look at this data.
Within Analytics, you will want to navigate to Audience > Mobile > Overview. You will then see a breakdown like the screenshot below.
As you can quickly see, with over 49% of this website’s traffic coming from mobile or tablet use, the decision is very clear. If your website is seeing 10% or less traffic from mobile search, you may not have to make an immediate decision. If that percentage is near 20% or above, you may want to make updating your site the top priority in your company "to-do" list.
Another step here, and a smart one if you ask us, is to dig deeper into your statistics. Research more into how many leads/sales actually come from these mobile searches. From there you will get a clearer picture.
Ok, so how do go about fixing this?
Now that we know your website isn’t mobile-friendly and we know that a significant amount of traffic is coming from mobile searches, the question becomes, "How can I fix this and keep my site in the mobile search results?"
Using the Mobile-Friendly Test Tool, Google will give you recommendations on making the proper adjustments. If you don’t feel comfortable taking action on these recommendations, let us help you examine your options. We can dig deeper into your statistics and help you make a smart decision when it comes to handling this big update.
