How Important is it to have a Mobile Friendly Website for your Local Business?

Last April 21, 2015, Google started expanding their ranking signals on how mobile-friendly websites are. How prepared is your local business website for the Google Mobile-Friendliness update? Is it really important to have a mobile-friendly website?

According to Google Webmaster Central Blog posted on February 26, 2015, there are two tests and a guide that you can check out for all webmasters:

Guide to mobile friendly sites: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/get-started/?utm_source=wmc-blog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=mobile-friendly

Mobile friendly test: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/?utm_source=wmc-blog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=mobile-friendly

Mobile Usability Report: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-usability?utm_source=wmc-blog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=mobile-friendly

It is critical and necessary for all local businesses that do not have a mobile friendly website to start updating their website to make it mobile friendly. Google search engine is consistently trying to improve and ensure they provide the best results and the best user experience. With more users now on mobile devices with their smartphones and tablets, your local business website must be adaptable for these consumers searching for your business website.

5 Points to keep in mind when turning mobile-friendly

1. Have an intuitive user-interface that’s easy to navigate. Users wouldn’t want to waste their time with websites that make it difficult to navigate. Always think about the user who’s going to look at your business’ website in a mobile-friendly scale.
2. Make sure that your mobile website can be crawled by Google. It will be useless to have your website exist but not have Google see it, crawl it or index it.
3. Make the site search option visible. Visitors looking for something specific usually turn to search. Placing it near the top of the homepage usually is the best place to be seen.
4. Try to create short-form content for mobile versions so that users can easily digest, access and understand information on your site. And lastly, whether you choose a responsive design for your website or a totally different version for mobile users, make sure it is hosted on a server with fast loading speeds.

If you are a local business owner that is unsure on how to check if your website is mobile friendly, please contact me at 416-888-8756. We will provide a complete website audit. You will see what needs to be done to your business website. So don’t get penalized by Google’s updates, call Local SEO Search now!