If your website isn’t already responsive or mobile friendly, now may be the best time to bite the bullet and go mobile as Google announces changes to the way it will rank search results; specifically when searching on mobile devices.
As the amount of users accessing sites on a mobile device grows, Google says changes are needed to optimize the mobile user’s experience by mobile searches generating more high quality search results.
According to the latest reports coming from Google HQ from April 21st, Google will be expanding the receptiveness of mobile searches as a ranking signal; meaning it will be easier for users to get relevant search results that are optimized for their devices.
How will going responsive help?
With a responsive design approach you can have one website that responds to fit perfectly with all the touchpoints your customers could have: desktop, notebook, tablet, smartphone, in all shapes and sizes. This means when your website becomes classified as a mobile friendly site by Google and it will rank higher in relevant mobile searches. If Google doesn’t recognise your site as ‘mobile friendly’ your site will be harder to rank when people search for your company when on the go.
Mobile sites
An alternative to a responsive site, would be to build a standalone mobile site specifically designed with mobile usability at the forefront of its functionality. The benefit of a mobile site means you will not have to change the function of your current website to make it fit a mobile device screen. Mobile sites tend to be designed more clearly with simplicity a prominent feature. With a standalone mobile site we can design you a site perfectly suited to the needs of both your ‘on the go’ customers and your business goals; whether it’s increasing enquiries, advertising specific products or encouraging engagement.
What if I have an App?
Google has also announced that it has begun extracting information from indexed apps as an influence in ranking. This means that content from indexed apps will surface more prominently in mobile search results.