Another Google Game-Changer: How Going Mobile Friendly Will Boost Your Search Visibility

From Panda to Penguin to Hummingbird, Google has rolled out a series of major changes to its ranking algorithms over the past three years that have sent major shockwaves echoing through world of SEO.

While its latest announcement hasn’t been met with the same level of fanfare as these previous updates, it heralds an important turning of the tides in the future of search and signals to any business that depends on web traffic that the time has arrived to pay heed and take action.

So what is this latest game-changer from Google? In an article released November 18 entitled “Helping Users Find Mobile-Friendly Pages”, the search giant announced that it is now adding an eye-catching “mobile-friendly” label in front of its mobile search results.

How does Google define mobile friendly? According to the article, a page is eligible for the “mobile-friendly” label 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

Okay – so what's the big deal about mobile friendly?

On the surface, this may seem like a relatively minor aesthetic enhancement to Google’s search results pages. However, it’s the reasoning driving this modification that portends even bigger changes ahead. In Google’s own words:

“Have you ever tapped on a Google Search result on your mobile phone, only to find yourself looking at a page where the text was too small, the links were tiny, and you had to scroll sideways to see all the content? This usually happens when the website has not been optimized to be viewed on a mobile phone…We see these labels as a first step in helping mobile users to have a better mobile web experience.”

It’s those last few words – “a first step in helping mobile users to have a better mobile web experience” – that should prompt smart marketers, SEOs and webmasters to sit up and pay attention. While Google has long recommended the use of responsive web design for mobile device support, they are now taking proactive steps to draw attention to those sites that deliver an optimal mobile browsing experience in order to ensure that they are providing the best search results for mobile users.

What this means for you is simple: if your site is not yet optimized for mobile devices, now is the time to change that!

Will “mobile-friendly” sites receive higher ranking on search results pages?

As you can see from the example above, the new “mobile-friendly” label will certainly capture the attention of users searching on mobile devices over results listings that are not given the same designation. In that way, mobile-friendly sites will automatically receive a boost in visibility in mobile search results.

But the question on everyone’s mind is whether having a mobile-friendly site will actually affect where their listing is ranked on the search results page. The answer: quite likely. In the article, Google states that the labels are a “first step” in creating a better mobile web experience, but they also conclude by saying that they “are also experimenting with using the mobile-friendly criteria as a ranking signal.”

It has long been speculated that Google does, in fact, give extra weight to sites that offer quality multi-device support by employing a responsive design framework, but this statement is the first official acknowledgment of this practice. What this means is that in the months ahead, you may see websites that create an experience optimized for smaller-screen, touch-based devices start to climb the rankings over others that do not offer the same. Who knows – maybe Google will even start exclusively displaying mobile-friendly sites for mobile searchers, a move that could really shift the balance in favor of those that provide an optimal experience for mobile users!

If your company is searching for ways to rise above the competition and increase your exposure in search engine rankings, this could truly be a game-changing development – one that should absolutely be capitalized on immediately. Not only will optimizing your site for mobile improve the experience for a growing percentage of your users, but a responsive site is also very likely to be your ticket to improved Google rankings in the future while also earning you their new “mobile-friendly” designation today.

How do I get started?

Google offers a number of tools to help you determine whether or not your site is mobile friendly, starting with their “Mobile-Friendly Test.” Simply plug the URL for any page of your website into this tool, and if it fails the test, Google will offer some suggestions and recommended links to more information about how you can improve your site’s support for mobile users.

You can also use the Mobile Usability Report in Google Webmaster Tools, which highlights major mobile usability issues across your entire site, not just one page.

These tools are a good start, but there is a difference between “mobile friendly” and “mobile optimized.” A site that scales down to better display on small-screen devices and features navigational links that are easily usable on those mobile devices is “friendly”, but there are many other considerations that go into creating a site that provides a truly optimized experience for users on those devices. If your site fails the Google tests, evaluate the suggestions they offer and also be sure to speak to your web design firm about how best to address mobile device support on your site.

The bad news

So optimizing your site for mobile is going be awesome, right? It will improve the user experience for many of your customers, and now that Google is taking a firm stand on this issue, mobile optimization can actually mean greater visibility in search and improved rankings. Those are great reasons to jump aboard the responsive bandwagon, but the bad news is that making a site responsive is no small task.

Responsive web design is not a feature you can simply tack on to an existing site, especially one that is quite old and outdated. Responsive design often requires rethinking how a site’s content is presented, and it almost always involves rebuilding your site from the framework up. This means that to make your site truly mobile ready, you may be looking at a complete redesign.

As 2014 nears its end and 2015 is on the horizon, your company is likely in the midst of budgeting for the coming year, including planning your marketing expenses. Mobile optimization for your website, even if it will require a full site redesign, should be on your agenda because as Google has so clearly stated in their recent announcement, support for mobile devices is no longer just a nice-to-have luxury. Rather, to compete successfully on the Web of today and tomorrow, optimization for mobile devices is an essential element.

Right from the Start: The Secrets to a Successful Website Redesign

Your website should be your number one salesman 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But if your site has lost its luster and isn’t performing as it should, a redesign might be just the right prescription to boost its ability to capture and convert new leads.

Redesign your website is an exciting prospect filled with so many possibilities. It is, quite literally, the dawn of a new day for your company’s web presence, but how and where do you start?

Here’s a website redesign road map that will put you on the track to success right from the start.

Start with your “wish list.”

Naturally, when you’re embarking on a website redesign project, your first inclination is to make an exhaustive list of all the features and functionality you want to incorporate in the new site.

Having a wish list is helpful, but clinging insistently to executing every single one of those items can be a recipe for a budget-busting project.

Go ahead and create your wish list, but once you’re done, the next step in the process is to put on your editor’s hat. Strike through every single feature that is not essential to success. Don’t be afraid to be aggressive in your editing. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

Keep only the mission-critical features that will create a better, more value-packed user experience. Shed the “nice-to-have” features that will appeal to only a very small sub‐segment of your audience or that represent a personal “pet project.” These will only clutter your site and make it harder for the majority of your customers to find what they need quickly and easily.

If you can maintain a critical, objective eye through this editing process, your wish list will be substantially reduced, and you will have a much more solid foundation for a successful project.

Fight the “now-or-never” mentality.

One of the obstacles you’ll face when trying to pare down your wish list is the thinking that if you don’t do something now, you won’t get the chance to do it again in the near future. After all, how often do you redesign your website?

Instead, take a phase-based approach to the project. With your long-term goals and objectives in mind, decide what you must have now and what can wait until your company and your customers’ needs have reached the next plateau.

By mapping out anticipated future iterations and additions at the outset, you can make sure that your new site is built with the underpinnings it needs to support later growth and expansion.

Also, by breaking your redesign project into phases, you can launch the first version more quickly and without blowing your entire budget. This will give you time to gather feedback on the site and shape your future development plans accordingly.

The responses you receive from your customers after your new site launches may reinforce your decision to shed certain unnecessary features, or you may discover that they’re asking for another feature you had not previously considered. By breaking your project into smaller phases, you can take action on this valuable feedback quickly, instead of waiting until the next big redesign project. In this way, you can show your customers that you’re listening to them and that you care deeply about what they have to say – a great way to continue to build customer loyalty.

So now that you have your wish list and your phase-based approach nailed down, what’s next? It’s time for the big “d” – design.

Never cut corners on design.

Many redesign projects center around the need for a new look and feel for the website. Maybe your site’s current design isn’t a good reflection of your brand, or perhaps your company has simply outgrown a site that was launched early on in its history. Or you may just feel that your site is tired and outdated and in desperate need of modernization.

Regardless of the reasons driving your redesign, creating a Class-A look and feel with a user experience to match is a critical, yet often undervalued, piece of your website redevelopment project.

Adding new features or functionality will be pointless if the look of the site or the experience it creates is not up to par. Success starts with great design, and quality design should never take a backseat to fancy bells and whistles.

Consider this scenario: Let’s say you have a website with an outdated look that’s lacking the helpful features your customers want. If you were to update it with a strong modernized design but include none of those new features, you would still realize some measure of success. You’d have an attractive new design and a quality user experience, and that alone is an improvement that you can then build upon in later phases. If, however, you go the opposite route by trying to shoehorn new features into a bad existing design, your site will still suffer from that outdated look and poor user experience, and your investment will be for naught.

Great features supported by bad design have a very steep hill to climb. By investing in good design early on, you’ll ensure that all future investment in the website – when you do add those extra features – will have the best chance for success instead of being forced to fight a losing battle against a poorly designed user interface.

Design with the future in mind.

Deploying a website that is streamlined, efficient and customer-focused is a great start. But the feedback you receive after launch and the desire to continually improve the site will ultimately drive what comes next – those subsequent phases that you have already planned for. To this end, you will need to make sure that the new design and platform will support future growth.

As you edit aggressively early on in this process, you should also continually ask yourself if the plans that you’re making will scale appropriately. How will the site grow with your company over the next 6 months? How about the next 12 or 24 months? How will this mesh with the future phases you have planned as well as the unexpected feedback you may get along the way?

Whether you are hiring a web development firm for your redesign project or are working with an in‐house team, ask them about the technologies that are being used on the new site, from HTML5 to CSS3 to responsive design to the content management system (CMS), and think about how those technologies will work for you today and tomorrow. When it comes to the foundation behind the scenes, never make a choice to save money in the short term that isn’t the best choice for the long term, or else you’ll ultimately end up shelling out a lot more money over time.

A successful website redesign project can start small and focused on critical elements, but to achieve long-term success, that streamlined approach must allow for future scalability so your website will grow with your company, evolve along with emerging technologies and continue to fuel your success.

Take the plunge.

There are many different ways to get from point A to point B when building a website, but regardless of the process you and your team follow, the fundamental principal of starting small and focused on critical elements for success and adding improvements over time is one that will never steer you wrong. Instead of trying to do everything at once, taking this approach will allow you to launch a new website that is a visual and functional improvement without getting bogged down by “nice-to-have” features that will ultimately add very little value but potentially cause very big headaches.

A great design bolstered by key usability features and an eye towards future growth and scalability are the keys to creating a website that will serve as a catalyst for the growth of your business today, tomorrow and beyond.