In February 2015, Google announced their plans to make mobile-friendliness as one of their key ranking signals.
Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.
This means if your website is not optimised for mobile devices then your website’s search engine ranking will likely suffer. To see if your website is mobile friendly, please go to Google’s mobile friendly testing tool and test your website.
What do mobile friendly mean?
Mobile friendly or responsive websites react to the device that the website is being viewed upon whether it be a mobile, tablet, laptop or desktop. The 4-inch screen on your phone can not perfectly show a website designed for a 19-inch monitor. This means that you have to create a different layout that looks great on mobiles.
Does that mean that you have to build and maintain multiple websites? NO! You only have to maintain one website but that website will adapt depending how it is being viewed.
How can I make my website mobile friendly?
If your website was built before 2012, chances are that your website is NOT mobile friendly. Don’t worry though as any website can be made mobile friendly.
You need to do the following in order to make your website mobile friendly:
- decide what items are important to display/hide on each device and create the appropriate design
- optimise your images as large images can slow your website down
- make sure that everything you use can be viewed on every device (e.g. flash can not be viewed on iPhones and iPads)
- update your CSS to include @media statements for every device size you want to target (e.g. iPhone 3/4/5/6 in landscape and portrait mode, HTC in landscape and portrait mode, iPad in landscape and portrait mode, etc)
- put a meta tag on the head section of your website to indicate it is mobile friendly
OR..
We can help. We have been building mobile friendly websites since 2011. Contact us today and find out how we can help you make your website mobile friendly.
