You’ve probably been hearing a lot of talk about the importance of having a mobile-friendly website lately. You've seen stuff on LinkedIn and on Facebook about how you need to “Act Now! or Google will hate you!”
The problem is that most of what’s out there about it doesn’t tell you why you should care if your website has a good mobile experience - they just tell you that it should. So let’s get at the real reasons you should care.
#1 Reason - Google cares!
The most important reason you should care is that Google does. As of April 21, 2015 the latest Google update cares a whole lot about mobile. Google said this update is a significant ranking factor for websites. They never use the word “significant” when it comes to anything that affects page rank for a site, so we know it’s important.
#2 Reason - It’s not just Google!
But it’s not just about Google… Yahoo and Bing are the other two big search engines in the space, and they are rolling out new algorithms that reward mobile-friendly sites as well.
#3 Reason - Even info sites need it!
One of the things I hear from business owners all the time though is: “I just use my website for informational purposes for my customers, I don’t really care about getting search traffic.”
My first response to that…
- Even if people hear about you somewhere else – like on the radio or from a friend – it is very likely they will search for you instead of typing in your URL to get to your site, so search rank matters – at least for your company name and city even if you don’t rank well for the services you offer.
- First impressions matter! That doesn’t just include your office and your wardrobe. When someone visits your website for the first time, it leaves an impression too. That impression should be good whether it’s from a mobile device or a laptop.
- Search traffic is free – so why wouldn’t you want it? If people come to your site for information and they didn’t search it – that means some other way of advertising brought them there, which usually means it took money to get them here. You don’t have to pay monthly fees for SEO, just make sure your site is set up right, and Google will pick it up and bring people there for free… so ignoring that traffic is foolish.
#4 Reason – Mobile Is Overtaking Desktop
I still remember when phones were a fad, and nobody thought they’d really be a major way that people would use the internet… the screens are too small… data is too costly… speeds are too slow.
But those mobile devices are coming on strong and more users than ever before are turning to them every day. According to ComScore, mobile usage has overtaken desktop usage.
How Do You Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly?
The best way to format your site for mobile use is to utilize responsive design. This method allows the site to reflow and stack the content to fit the screen width of the device it’s being viewed on. Because it tests the width of the screen instead of the software versions on the phone, it survives the best as new devices come out.