So why is there so much emphasis on “Mobile Friendly” lately when it comes to website design.
Well until recently the majority of people viewing websites consisted mainly of those using desktop or laptop computers. However in the last couple of years that trend has changed. It’s been coming for a long time and was almost inevitable, but as of this moment, there are now more people viewing websites on mobile devices, such as tablets and mobile phones, than on desktop or laptop computers. This is hardly surprising given the massive success of Apple’s iPhone and iPad in starting a mini revolution in the way people browse the Internet. However this has caused many website designers problems; as websites primarily designed for viewing on desktop computers are not performing as they should as they are not optimised for viewing on the much smaller screens of mobile phones.
And now with Google’s update to search criteria, with emphasis being placed on mobile friendly sites, many none friendly sites are beginning to drop down the search rankings, or not appear at all when searching on a mobile device.
So what is the solution? Well in a nut shell you need to get your website mobile friendly as soon as possible. That’s not quite as simple as it seems; as many of these sites will have certain aspects of them that are not designed to work on mobile devices. In some cases it will be easy to fix those individual elements, but in many cases the sites will need significant recoding.
So how do you test if your website falls foul of the mobile friendly terms that Google now insist upon. Well thankfully Google have supplied a simple tool to test your website. Simply go to https://www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ and enter you website address and it will analyse your website to see if it really is a mobile friendly design.