This article by Corey White was first published on Scott Klososky’s blog, Technology Story.
Have you ever suffered through the frustration of trying to navigate a poorly-designed website on a smartphone: pinching pages, clicking on the wrong links, trying to read text that is entirely too small or doesn’t fit correctly requiring you to scroll back and forth horizontally across the page? These types of websites lack mobile-friendliness. Websites not mobile-friendly lost another friend last week in Google who changed its search algorithm to favor website pages that are mobile-friendly. The algorithm change was dubbed “mobilegeddon,” which makes you wonder when the Texas-sized asteroid hurtling itself towards Earth is going to arrive. Yeah, the name maybe was a little dramatic, but its impact is not. Google is publicly recognizing the rise of mobile and the importance it has on user experience.
It’s expected by the end of the year that over half of website traffic will come from mobile devices. That number is just going to continue to rise. Plus, people are increasingly navigating the same website across different platforms. For instance, they might look up a storefront on their mobile, shop for products on a tablet, and pay for the purchase on a desktop. Therefore, users want a seamless experience across all these devices.
Finding a platform that supports responsive design is not hard and is now imperative. Responsive designed websites will automatically resize depending on the device the website is being viewed on. Most WordPress themes are responsive designed, so too is Magento. If your website platform does not support responsive design, then you need to seriously consider finding a platform that does. Sure, it may mean some headaches now; that’s much better than a slow, painful march towards oblivion.
Designing for mobile is also important. Keep it simple. Avoid overwhelming navigation and unnecessary graphics that eat up space. Move users down an effortless journey towards a conversion and they may thank you with, well, a conversion.
Google, who is normally cagey about its algorithm updates, was perfectly clear on the impact this one would have on its search rankings. Despite ample warning (Google announced the change in February), many leaders failed to act. Hence the dramatic tag “mobilegeddon.” Sure, it is important to listen to Google; they are the Godzilla of internet search. We certainly don’t advise upsetting Godzilla. Yet, if it takes your organization something as profound as a Google algorithm update to realize that you need to pay more attention to the needs of your users, then obviously there is something fundamentally wrong with your digital strategy.
Google Co-founder Larry Page said in Walter Isaacson’s 2014 book The Innovators: “I feel like I developed an intuition of how people will interact with the screen, and I realized those things are pretty important. But they’re not well understood, even today.” He’s absolutely right. Many leaders still don’t grasp how critical it is to have a website that is designed specifically with a user in mind. With growing frequency, a user has a mobile device in hand and is attempting to navigate with it. The user experience is now directly tied to mobile usability. They go hand in hand (excuse the pun)!
An easy way to ensure that your website is being flagged by Google as mobile-friendly is to use Google’s handy Mobile-Friendly Tester. Note that Google bases mobile-friendliness on individual pages not on a website as a whole. Also, Google’s algorithm applies only to mobile searches not tablet or desktop searches. Plus, if you update your website pages to its mobile-friendly rules, Google’s talented web-crawlers will update your status automatically.
If your website isn’t currently mobile-friendly, or you lack a mobile plan of action, remember that crisis leads to opportunity. It is time to act. Treat this as a positive and necessary chance to improve your digital user experience and enact a mobile strategy that will have a long-term benefit on your organization.
A former CEO of three successful tech startup companies and principal at consulting firm Future Point of View, Scott Klososky specializes in seeing beyond the horizon of how technology is changing the world. His unique perspectives on technology, business culture, and the future allow him to travel the globe as an international speaker, consultant, and author, working with senior execs in organizations ranging from the Fortune 500 to universities, nonprofits, and countless professional associations and coalitions.
