You may remember the promise of Mobilegeddon in 2015 and Mobilegeddon 2.0, rolled out in May this year, and the dire warnings of the impact that would have on your website’s Google ranking if it was not responsive. It is difficult to measurethe impact these changes have had on individual websites as, of course, search visibility relies on many factors, the responsiveness of your website being just one of them. However, the changes made by Google to their search algorithm have shown that they are committed to ensuring that the search results they offer are for websites which are responsive and can be accessed on any device.
As mobile and tablet use continues to grow, it is more important than ever that websites are viewed in a consistent format on all devices. Many people use a variety of devices through the day with mobile usage more common during the late night and early morning, laptop/desktop computers having increased usage throughout the working day and tablet usage popular at night. Many users may view the same website on these three devices in one day, especially as our devices are becoming more connected through personal cloud accounts. A page is eligible to be marked as mobile friendly by Google if it meets the following criteria
• 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
If your site does not fulfil this criteria, Mobilegeddon and Mobilegeddon 2.0 may well have affected your website ranking in search. If you are not sure if your site meets the Google criteria, you can check with their simple mobile friendly site checker here. Even if you feel that you do not rely too heavily on search engine visibility for acquisition and the changes to Google’s algorithm do not impact you, taking the above criteria as a guide is a good idea and your website users will thank you for it. Frustration at loading times will lead to users quickly abandoning a site when accessing via mobile and poor layout, inaccessible content and difficultly accessing links are all sources of frustration and will decrease engagement and conversion.
Whether redesigning an existing website, or creating a brand new one, we use DNN CMS and Bootstrap. We can convert an existing DNN site to Bootstrap by taking your current website and building a brand new set of DNN templates and containers, ensuring that the design stays exactly the same. The result will be a feature rich, responsive website which is flexible and extensible and equally good looking across all formats, as well as being simple to update. For more information about converting your site to a responsive template or a complete redesign, contact us, we’d love to help.