Why Mobile Optimized Websites Are More Important Than Ever
The mobile industry is booming. There’s no question that mobile devices have become a staple in everyday living around the world. The sheer volume of mobile users is reason enough to embrace a mobile website. Mobile searches are on track to exceed desktop searches; therefore, designing for the mobile demographic is important for providing a great user experience.
Now, more then ever, mobile optimized websites are as important as ever given Google’s announcement of a new ‘’mobile-friendly’’ label on its mobile search results page. Google will start indicating in mobile search results which sites are optimized for your phone. This label will tell users in advance the kind of mobile experience they can expect when going to the site. Here is the new Google label in action:
A recent Google survey of mobile users found that 72 percent of mobile users say it’s important to them that websites are mobile friendly, yet 96 percent have visited a site that doesn’t work well on their device. The new label is a significant update from Google and will most definitely impact websites that have not been optimized. Sites with the mobile-friendly label will likely see an increase in traffic and receive a better click-through rate than other sites without the new label.
So, how do you qualify to show the ‘’mobile-friendly’’ label for your web pages? Google says a page will be eligible if it meets the following criteria as detected by Googlebot:
- 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
Is your site Mobile Friendly?
To ensure your pages meet the mobile-friendly criteria, run your pages through the Mobile-Friendly Test. Google has also provided a guide for building and improving your mobile-friendly websites
