As we announced to our clients via email earlier this month, Google launched its latest update on April 21st. This changed the way Google ranks websites for all mobile searches (those done on tablets or smart phones) and penalizes sites that are NOT mobile-friendly.What is Mobile-Friendly?
When they say mobile-friendly, it means that the website is easy to read and navigate on small screens. All sites will show up on a smart phone screen, but non-mobile-friendly sites will look exactly like they would on a desktop monitor, only really, really tiny. Such sites have text so small that you need a magnifying glass to read them, or you have to enlarge your view, then side-scroll. Either way, they are NOT easy to read. And the menu buttons are so close together that it’s hard to touch any one in particular.
A mobile-friendly site, on the other hand, is designed to show each page on the small screens of phones. No magnifying glass is needed to read the text, and menu buttons are large and well-spaced, to make it easy to navigate the whole site.
With over 50% of the people in America now searching the web with mobile devices, and Google punishing those that are not mobile-friendly, having an old-style website is going to cost companies a lot of business from here on out.
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
Google has provided a simple test page for anyone to find out what their website looks like on a smart phone. It’s located at: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/. Check it out yourself.
In the image at right, you can see what Profit Gate’s website looks like on a cell phone.
In the image below, you can see what our website looks like on a desktop screen.
We have already updated many of our client sites that were not mobile-friendly.
If you would like yours updated, you can give us a call, or email Dan Lewis – dan @ profitgate.net.