Actual Manna Client Website Showing Its Mobile View
Why Mobile-Friendly Web Design is a Must
Is your website mobile friendly? If not, you can expect to hear from Google soon as it’s in the process of warning webmasters worldwide to get mobile or get gone – at least where search rankings are concerned.
Sounds a little harsh, we know, but if you care about reaching your customers, it’s in your best interest to find out the facts.
Where We Get Our Mobile-Friendly Facts
During a recent study, Google found that four out of five people used search engines to conduct local searches. Eighty-eight percent of them used smartphones, which means mobile searches are movin’ on up — and fast. As the king of search engines, Google doesn’t like the idea of sending its users to web sites that can’t be read when on the go. It just doesn’t look good – for them or for the owners of the sites that are causing the problems, so Google is making some changes.
What Does This Mean For Your Website?
While not yet confirmed, all indications are that Google will soon launch a mobile ranking algorithm that may result in better search rankings for mobile-friendly sites. They’ve already launched a mobile friendly testing tool, mobile usability reports in Google Webmaster Tools, and mobile-friendly labels in the search results. Here’s a sample of the warning e-mail going to webmasters:
Fix mobile usability issues found on your website!
If your web site is already mobile friendly, congratulations! If not, mobile optimization is quickly becoming a must if you want to be found online.
At Manna Design Works, we are here to help. In fact, while we make the necessary modifications to implement a mobile website design for your website, we’ll also add some SEO enhancements that were likely unavailable when your site was originally created. If you’re not yet a Manna customer, we’d like you to be and invite you to contact us for more information. Call 856.881.7650 or e-mail us at: [email protected]. You can also complete a quick Information Request Form Here.
Google Mobile-Friendly Website Warning Email
This is the transcript of an actual Google email warning a webmaster about the mobile-friendly status of their website.
Fix mobile usability issues found on http://www.XXXXXXXXXX.com/
To: webmaster of http://www.XXXXXXXXXX.com/
Google systems have tested 112 pages from your site and found that 98% of them have critical mobile usability errors. The errors on these 110 pages severely affect how mobile users are able to experience your website. These pages will not be seen as mobile-friendly by Google Search, and will therefore be displayed and ranked appropriately for smartphone users.
Fix this now:
1 Find problematic pages
View a report of the non-mobile-friendly pages found on your site, and the issues discovered. Inspect mobile issues
2 Learn about mobile-friendly design
There are a variety of techniques you can use to make your site mobile-friendly. Specifically, look for information about the issues brought up in Webmaster Tools. Follow our guidelines
3 Fix mobile usability issues on your site
Fix the issues preventing your site from being mobile-friendly.
Not sure how to proceed?
• If your site is built with software like WordPress or Joomla (also known as “Content Management System” or CMS), read the easy steps to make a CMS mobile-friendly.
• Read more about building mobile-friendly websites on our Developer site.
• Ask more questions in our Webmaster Central Forum —mention message type [WNC-451500]
