Google's mobile matters

May 04, 2015

You may have heard by now that Google have recently made a major change to the way they rank search results. The upshot is that if your site is mobile friendly then you’ll get a better “score”.

Being mobile friendly generally means that you are using responsive design in your website templates. This is where the layout of the page adapts according to the device that someone is using to view the page: it maybe makes text larger, changes how menus are laid out, compensates for image sizes etc. Details and advice about the rationale and implementation can be found in the comprehensive Mobile Guide documentation from Google.

Why it matters to you

It may sound all a bit technical, but there are two good reasons for taking notice.

1. Your website may not appear as high in search results when people are trying to find your product or service;
2. Perhaps more importantly, the number of people using phones, tablets and other devices to access the internet is growing — fast. Making your site work well for them will generally leave you with a happier visitor who can use the site more effectively. And after all, that’s why you’ve got a website in the first place.

What you need to do

If your site was built fairly recently then in all likelihood it will be mobile friendly. The first step should be to test it using the Mobile Friendly Test. It may be that the test highlights some potential improvements.

If you have an older site then don’t despair! Whilst there isn’t a quick fix, we can certainly help you work through what needs to be done. It may be that we can take small steps rather than go the whole hog and build a new site. It’s a good incentive to think about updating the website anyway!

Most importantly: get in touch and we’ll be able to help.