Google to penalise non mobile friendly websites
21st April will see Google start to penalise non mobile friendly websites.
Well, it’s finally arrived – Google getting heavy with non mobile friendly websites. Now is the time to get your website responsive or see it lose rank to others that are! If your website is a few years old, it’s always good practise to review your site and think about refreshing it. If your website is not already going through a redesign, then time is now very much in essence!
We have been designing Responsive websites for the last three to four years and have been advising our clients that their new site should be seen easily on small screens. Most people have seen the wisdom in this, but where a customer was reticent to go down that route – we can see a busy few months ahead reshaping some sites for those who wish to change their minds. Google will now test your site for mobile user experience, this will include size of clickable areas, whether the site delivers the mobilised version and also tests for speed. If you want to see your website perform better on mobile devices, please give us a call – we can advise you what needs to be done to get your site ready for mobile and explain what’s involved.
Please give us a call on 01473 276107, we are happy to explain things to you, or email us by visiting this page.
1. Create a new website that is ‘Responsive’ – this means it is optimised to display at the correct width for different devices – for Tablet and Mobile phone, with no horizontal scrolling or zooming.
The image here demonstrates to you how a responsive website looks on Desktop, Tablet and Mobile.
2. Create a ‘Mobile only’ site that runs along side your main site. With this option a second site is created that is made purely for mobile phone widths, these usually contain less content than a Responsive site and are quicker to load than a Responsive site. Please see millriver.co.uk on your mobile phone to compare it to the desktop version.
The image here shows the Mill River website in its Mobile Only version – for this site (created as far back as 2011) the content has been reduced to a minimum for quicker loading times.
Google to penalise non mobile friendly websites
Mobile Only vs Responsive – your choice
So what are the consequences of choosing either a Mobile only site or a Responsive site?
1. Responsive:
- More economical to build and update, you only need to create ONE website and the browser will detect which format to display.
- Customers only need to update one set of files
- Slower load time, even where some content is hidden from mobile displays, in simple terms the browser will still detect the files that are deliverable, then omit the required files.
- Or more time spent configuring the mobile sites not only to omit displaying certain elements, but time to stop the delivery of these elements entirely in order to improve loading time
BETTER FOR SMALLER SITES AND COMPANIES THAT WANT THE MAJORITY OF THEIR CONTENT DISPLAYED ON MOBILE
2. Mobile Only:
- A bigger budget needed to create a second website that displays only your most important information
- Quicker loading time than Responsive sites
- Possible SEO confusion, we would recommend page names are different and/or the site is in a sub-folder
BETTER FOR BIG SITES WITH LOTS OF CONTENT WISHING TO DELIVER A REDUCED VERSION ON MOBILE DEVICES
In a hurry?
A quick fix would be to create a mobile only site to display your most important content until such a time where you have the budget to review your site and branding in its entirety. Still interested? Give us a call on 01473 276107, or email us here, please note that we are fully booked until after the Anglia Business Exhibition on 6th May.
