Late last year, Google launched the Mobile-friendly label in their search results when using a mobile device. The purpose of this new label is so mobile users know which sites they may click on that are mobile enabled (Responsive) versus which ones are not adhering to the latest coding standards and are difficult to navigate on a mobile device. Google added the text label under the domain name just before the website description and the label reads “Mobile-friendly”. This is a clear sign that it is crucial to have a mobile enabled website as well as as some other reasons to be mentioned.
Here Is What Our Site Looks Like In Google
Google is quoted as saying, the reason for implementing this is that it can be a “frustrating experience for our mobile searchers” to end up on a web page that is not mobile-friendly, thus they are adding the label to their mobile search results to communicate this to the searcher.
How do you know of your site is mobile friendly? Well, use any mobile device and go to Google and do a search by your company name, if it does not show “Mobile-friendly” as part of your site listing, get help fast. As the numbers of mobile users increase yearly, it is crucial to have a mobile enabled Responsive website. Currently about half of your site traffic comes to you from a mobile device and that number will only continue to increase.
Here are the following criteria in order to be qualified as a mobile enabled site:
- Avoid technologies or animation that is not viewable or friendly to on mobile devices, such as Flash.
- Optimize your text to be readable without having to zoom in.
- Responsive site that auto-resizes your content to the screen visitors are using (i.e mobile, tablet, laptop, ect.) so visitors do not have to scroll left and right
Other benefits of mobile enabled web sites:
- Easy to fill out lead generation forms on mobile (more leads).
- Easy to call your company as user simply click on the phone number to start dialing, typing numbers in to call.
- Mobile sites load faster than traditional sites, this is important for mobile user who are on slower 3G networks, they will leave if things do not load fast as mobile users tend to be a bit more impatient than traditional PC users.
If you are unsure as to whether Google considers your site as mobile friendly here is a site that will tell you: