Google’s latest algorithm, “Mobilegeddon” has been released on April 21, where any website that is not mobile friendly, appears really low on mobile search results.
This change affected mobile searches in all languages worldwide and had a significant impact in Google Search results.
Users find it easier to get relevant, high-quality search results optimized for their devices.
What makes a website mobile friendly
One Website
In the past, when we designed websites for the “mobile web,” we would cut out content to fit for mobile use and argue which parts are more suitable for mobile. However, we can’t control what kind of content our users want, and we can’t say that mobile devices are so fundamentally different from our desktops that mobile has to have its own webspace.
Responsive Web Design
Responsive design allows website developers to create a site that will be easily viewable on different sizes of devices. When responsive design is used on a website, the webpage will be able to detect the visitor’s screen size and orientation and change the layout accordingly. Learn more about Responsive Web Design, here.
It's all about the fonts and buttons
Your font size and button sizes matter a lot for mobile devices. For font size, it should be at least 14px. The only time you should be going smaller, to a minimum of 12px, is on labels or forms.
As for buttons, the bigger the button, the better—it reduces the chances that the user will miss it or hit the wrong button by mistake.
High-Resolution Images
High-Resolution images are extremely important on your responsive websites to ensure your user’s experience is of a high standard. Having extremely high-resolution images will help you avoid having pixelated or even blurry images when viewed on a retina-quality screen.
YouTube Videos
If you use a lot of videos on your site, the way your video is viewed on mobile will be very different and can sometimes be difficult. Using YouTube videos is a solution to combat any difficulties in viewing videos on mobile. The reason for this is that the embed code on YouTube is already responsive. This saves you multiple steps in making sure that your videos are mobile-friendly.
Unlimited Mobile User Experience
No matter how beautiful your mobile website is, always include a “go to full website” or “view desktop version” option at the bottom of your site. Some people still prefer the full site experience so always give them the option to view your full website.
Test, Test, and Test
Test your website on an iPhone, an Android, a Windows phone, and any different tablet possible. Test every page, user action, buttons; and while you’re testing, it’s always important to put yourself in the position of the user or ask someone who didn’t design it to test it for you.
Still need more information? Here is 8 steps by Google, to turn your website mobile friendly!
7 steps to a Google Mobile friendly Website
- Test Whether Your Pages Is Mobile-Friendly
Google has a simple tool to help you check whether your website is mobile-friendly.
This test will analyze a URL and report if the page has a mobile-friendly design.
- Check your CMS specific recommendations.
- WordPress
- Joomla!
- Drupal
- Blogger
- vBulletin
- Tumblr
- DataLife Engine
- Magento
- Prestshop
- Bitrix
- Google Sites
These are the popular CMS integrations listed in specific recommendations by Google.
- Check Site Speed and Load Time
Page loading time is now one of the pivotal factors when it comes to mobile optimization, as according to Google, "We must deliver and render the above the fold (ATF) content in under one second, which allows the user to begin interacting with the page as soon as possible." Visit Google’s Page Speed Insights to find out what on your site is responding slowly for desktop and mobile and fix it.
- Ensure Your Website Doesn’t Use Flash
Flash-based content is not mobile-friendly. If you want to include animations, you may consider using other technologies like HTML 5. Also, make sure that your website doesn’t contain scripts that do not work on mobile.
- Make Sure That You Use Standard Fonts for the Content on Your Site
Fancy fonts might take the time to load on a user’s mobile device. Use standard fonts for content. Also, make sure that your font sizes scale properly within the viewport, and the users don’t need to pinch to zoom.
- Optimize Your Images
Optimize your images accordingly to make your site load faster.
- Keep a Tab on Your Redirects
Ensure that you maintain a 1:1 URL relationship if you have a mobile version of the desktop website. Check out Google guidelines for the same.
So, these are the some of the important steps to help you avoid your website getting clobbered by Google, and to make sure that your website is compliant with the Google mobile usability requirements.
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Sources:
http://blog.hootsuite.com/9-tips-to-creating-a-mobile-friendly-website/
https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/6196932?hl=en
