Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?
Having a mobile-ready website is more important than ever for small businesses. We already know that a significant percentage of searches are done on mobile devices and the numbers increase all the time. But what does that actually mean for your business’s website?
What Does “Mobile-friendly” Mean?
First, let’s get the terms situated. Essentially, “mobile-friendly” means that a website is easy to use on a mobile device. With today’s heavy use of phones and tablets, a website should be mobile-friendly at the very least. To be clear, a mobile-friendly website is the absolute minimum requirement of a website. A website that isn’t mobile-friendly simply isn’t up to par anymore.
The step beyond a mobile-friendly website is a responsive website. That means a website that adjusts dynamically for the device it’s being viewed on, whether computer, tablet, or phone. A responsive website is the standard of today.
Almost 60% of all online searches are from a mobile device. Of course, that varies by industry. For example, if you’re in the food and beverage industry, that statistic is closer to 72%. (The Search Review)
To give you an idea of how that might be affecting your business — If you have a restaurant and your website isn’t responsive, or even mobile-friendly, approximately 72% of your website visitors aren’t having a good experience on your website. And remember, we’re talking about every aspect of your website. So if your website is mostly mobile-friendly but your website links to your menu in PDFs, that’s not mobile-friendly. It’s frustrating.
Mobile-Friendly Websites Rank Better in Search Results
If that hasn’t been enough to convince you of the need for a mobile-ready site, how about search results?
Google rolled out a mobile-friendly update that gives preference to mobile-ready pages. That’s good news for small businesses with responsive websites, but not so good for those without. While responsive websites move up in search ranking, websites that aren’t mobile-ready get pushed further and further down the search results.
Google’s update, fondly called Mobileggedon, didn’t make quite the immediate splash that was expected. The shifts have been small, but don’t let that fool you. Search engine changes can be slow.
If you have a website that isn’t mobile-friendly, where you show up in search results will be affected. If not today, soon.
We’ve been doing a little online lurking lately, checking out websites to see if they’re mobile ready or not. It’s surprising how many sites aren’t responsive, even websites that looked fairly new and had modern designs. And unfortunately, if you didn’t know to ask your last web designer about getting a responsive website, you may have paid for a website that’s already outdated.
The best thing you can do is check your website to find out if Google sees your website as mobile-friendly or not. Click here to go to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and you’ll have your answer immediately.
If Google recognizes your site as mobile-friendly, take a deep sigh of relief! While this won’t ensure your rise to the top of search results, at least you know your website isn’t working against you. If Google says your website isn’t mobile-friendly, your website needs your attention.
Done correctly, your website should be your most valuable sales “person,” working for your business every day, all day.
If your website isn’t responsive, now’s the time to get a mobile-ready website that will work for your business instead of against it.
