Google recently announced scheduled changes to their search engine algorithm that will place a larger emphasis on mobile-friendly sites. For sites that haven’t taken the time to make sure they’re compatible on a number of mobile devices, this change could cause your site to fall significantly in Google’s rankings.
Whether you like it or not, Google’s mobile-friendly search algorithm will officially take effect as of April 21st. Fortunately, this gives you a window to make the necessary changes to your site so that it doesn’t drop into relative obscurity in user’s search results.
Google Slap
While Google’s campaign to demote sites for lack of mobile-friendly characteristics, it’s important to recognize that these changes will only have a significant effect on mobile, smartphone-friendly search results and web pages that are misconfigured or unable to load at all on mobile devices.
That being said, if your site isn’t optimized for a variety of mobile devices, you’re sure to drop in Google’s mobile search results. If you want to avoid having your site drop off the first page for search terms related to your business, you should be sure to make your site more mobile-friendly over the course of the next month.
Key Mistakes to Avoid
Webmasters typically make a couple significant errors when optimizing a mobile-friendly website. The first mistake is setting up faulty redirects that take the user to your mobile-friendly homepage, regardless of which specific page the user was attempting to view. Each page of your desktop site should have an equivalent page optimized for mobile devices.
When optimizing mobile sites, some webmasters also forget to make sure smartphone users don’t get a number of varying error messages when trying to view pages on your site from their mobile device. In other words, mobile users should have access to all the relevant site information that they’d otherwise find on a desktop version of your site.
Ridding your site of 404 Error messages, correctly handling Googlebot-Mobile, and making sure all videos are playable and all media is displayed properly are just a few of the other issues webmasters should address when optimizing their site for mobile devices.
Mobile-Friendly Tips
When optimizing your mobile-friendly website, you should be sure to avoid flashy images that won’t properly display on smartphones or tablets. Your mobile site should also be very easy and straightforward for users to navigate.
It is also generally recommended to avoid including advertisements on your mobile site. Ads tend to work different on desktop versions of a website than they do on a mobile-friendly version. Many ad images won’t link properly or may not be viewable altogether from mobile devices.
Including too many ads on your mobile-friendly website can also slow down your site’s download time significantly. Not only will this cause you to lose viewers before they can even get to your content, but you may also be subject to penalties from Google, which can considerably damage your site’s mobile reputation.
As the crucial April 21st deadline approaches, it’s critical that you make sure you have a version of your website that’s optimized for mobile devices. If you wish to speak to a web design pro about optimizing your website, please don’t hesitate to give the experienced team at eKzact Solutions a call at 403-770-3023 today!
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