A Big Reason Why Your Website Should Be Mobile Friendly – Google!!
We all know how important a website is to your business. That’s a given. And, in the last couple of years, the importance of having a mobile friendly website has increased drastically.
There are lost of reasons for this. One of the main reasons is the simple fact that mobile usage has been exceeding desktop computer usage since early 2014. This should come as no surprise to anyone.
However, what you may not know is that since November of 2014, Google has been adding “Mobile-Friendly” labels to websites that are, well, mobile friendly.
This is what I mean by a Mobile-Friendly Label.
What Google says is:
“Starting today, to make it easier for people to find the information that they’re looking for, we’re adding a “mobile-friendly” label to our mobile search results.”
Google goes on to say:
We see these labels as a first step in helping mobile users to have a better mobile web experience. We are also experimenting with using the mobile-friendly criteria as a ranking signal.
Mobile-friendly websites offer a distinct advantage over websites that are not, and Google is starting to actively advertise this fact.
It’s also plain to see that Google will be ranking mobile-friendly websites in Search Engine Rankings that those that are not.
Here are Google’s criteria for a mobile-friendly website:
- Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
- Uses text that is readable without zooming
- Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
- Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped
Google has also provided a free tool to test your website. Just head to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/, pop in the URL of your website, and you should something like this.
If you don’t, and instead see this …
.. then it’s time to think about updating your website.
What do you think about Google’s labelling system?
