Do you have a business web site ?

As so many people on here have a business web site I thought I would provide a link to this article

<<What this means is that mobile friendliness will be a ranking criteria for websites on Google. The algorithms will favour mobile-friendly sites, using a real-time, page-by-page basis to determine mobile friendliness, and penalise sites that display poorly on mobile devices. A website that is not a responsive website or mobile-friendly will suffer negative SEO and decreased search engine rankings.>>

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3070239/craig-wilson-staying-mobile-on-a-fast-moving-web/?cs=4200
 
There's an awful lot of scare-mongering going on about this change in Google's criteria.

Mobile friendliness is only one criteria of many which are used to determine search engine ranking.

If you otherwise rank really well, you'll probably find minimal impact from this change.

However, if you are in a highly competitive segment it might have more of an impact if your competitors all have mobile-friendly sites and you don't.

Personally, I've not seen any impact from the changes made last month - indeed for most of my sites (of which few have been optimised for mobile devices yet), traffic is actually up in recent weeks - quite significantly for some sites.

Given the dramatic increase in mobile device usage in recent years (as evidenced by analytics data for my websites), I do think it is worth redesigning sites to be mobile-friendly (or more specifically, "responsive" such that they work just as well across devices with varying screen resolutions).

However I wouldn't panic about it just yet, but would instead recommend carefully planning your website strategy and acting on that plan rather than just reacting and spending money on a poorly designed (even if "mobile friendly") website.

I see a lot of very poorly conceived websites being produced right now - I think we've actually gone backwards in usability and accessibility in recent years.

Sure, your shiny new site might look great on your iPhone, but does it also work? Can visitors to your site quickly and easily find the content they want (or that you want them to find!)? Does your site work just as well on other devices? Does it work well on large screens? Does it work on something other than the Mac it was designed on or the iPhone it was tested on? :rolleyes:
 
Hi Sim,

The figure of 60% of searches now coming from mobile devices would indicate any revamp or new web site will need to favour that type of device.

I think we can safely assume that number will continue to rise, so web site owners need to test on both I guess, businesses will continue to use either desktops or laptops while private users use more mobile devices.

More demand for IT people while adjustments are made to websites to accommodate the changing habits of users, good for the industry.
 
If people are following the trend, Google focus on all devices and mobile has been there since at least 2 years ago. It's just now they make a formal announcement that it will be part of the ranking algorithm. Focus should always be user experience and values.

The most beautiful responsive but useless websites won't fare well.
 
Yup, content (and authority) is still king.
And Usability. No good if there is great content but you can't find it. I sometimes have to google search a web site to find the page I want using site:www as a google criteria. It's a bit pathetic when you can't navigate to the right page.
 
I am currently building my website(for upcoming business venture) and i think it is important to have mobile/tablet compatible websites.

Lot of people aren't replacing their PC at home anymore.

PC at work
Laptop/tablet/phone at home or on the go

is the trend!
 
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