Use of the internet on mobile devices has rocketed over the last couple of years. Google is taking notice of this trend and since late 2014 has been adding a “mobile friendly” label to the search results done on a mobile device. Now they are going one stage further and from 21st April 2015 they will incorporate this information into their ranking criteria. So, if your site is not mobile friendly it will end up lower in the search results.
What makes a site mobile friendly?
The main factor is to make sure that your site responsive. In other words, it will work on the variety of devices used today to access the internet: PC, laptop, tablet and phone. A responsive design makes sure that:
- Text is scaled so that it is readable without zooming
- Content is sized for the screen, so that the user doesn’t have to scroll horizontally
- Links are placed far enough apart so that they can be tapped easily
If you are using WordPress or some other content management system, this will often take care of this for you. All you have to do is make sure that you choose a responsive theme.
Get your site tested
Google provide a mobile-friendly test for website. All you need to do is to type in the url for your site and it will provide the results.
Do be aware that there are other factors that the tester takes into account. One of these is the security settings on the host server. If these are set to block certain accesses to the sites then your site may be marked as not mobile friendly. Your hosting provider will be able to sort out these problems if your site is affected by this.
To use the Google test click here.
