by David Depman
Mobile web marketing is set to take off in 2015 for a couple of reasons (read more here). The main reason, as it usually is, is because ad dollars are flocking to mobile. The global spend on mobile advertising rose from 31.45 billion dollars in 2014 to a projected 45.85 billion this year. With that kind of growth, paying attention to how you are interacting with mobile and more importantly, how mobile is interacting with you is important.
The latter point is where Google comes into play. In November of last year, Google announced that they will identify “Mobile Friendly” sites with tags in the search results (when searching with Google on a mobile device). These mobile friendly tags will allow users to see which sites are optimised for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets and will help the people searching for your services connect to you on the device of their choice.
The way Google deals with search is changing to favor mobile friendly
As mentioned in the article linked above, mobile is increasingly influencing the way Americans search for information. 65% of all searches start from a mobile device. 90% use multiple screens sequentially to accomplish their search objectives over time (meaning that first group will move from their mobile with the info they gathered and act on their findings on a PC or tablet).
Google knows that the people who find you online are most likely, at some point in their search, using a mobile phone, and in a way they want to reward you with a tag!
But we find another way of looking at it in a press release from Google which states, “To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users.”
Put succinctly, the wrath of Google shall fall upon those who resist mobile friendly layout and content. Issues such as pushing mobile visitors to a single landing page when using a mobile device instead of the equivalent mobile friendly page will sadden Google. Google will also be sad if a page you have in your site on a PC shows up as an error page on mobile. Google will also pay attention to video. Video that plays on a PC but not on mobile devices (say “goodbye”, Flash) will most certainly make Google sad. The takeaway from Google’s mobile friendly push: don’t make Google sad, make your website mobile friendly.
Is your website mobile device friendly? Check here.