Google Penalizes You if Your Website is Not Mobile-Friendly
Posted on Jun 20 2015 by in Responsive WordPress Themes
Is your website mobile-friendly yet? Few months have passed since Google started to use mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor in mobile searching results. If your website is not mobile-friendly yet, you are in a big trouble.
In May, Google announced that “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.” (Tablets excluded!) That means that your website might be invisible for a half of your potential customers now. If you are not sure, whether your website is mobile-friendly, take the Google test here: Google’s Mobile-Friendly Developer Tool.
What can you do if your website has failed the test? There are two basic solutions:
- creating a responsive design, or
- creating a mobile version of your website.
What is the difference between a responsive design and a mobile site?
Responsive design means that your website is automatically optimized on all devices for the best view. If you are not using a popular CMS, such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, you may have to code your website all over again. If your website is based on WordPress, you may check whether your theme creator has released a responsive version of your theme.
Mobile site is a set of web pages creates specially for mobile devices. If your website cannot easily adapt a responsive theme, you should think of creating a dedicated mobile version of your website. In this case your current website remains unchanged.
Let’s compare pros and cons of using responsive design versus creating a mobile website.
Responsive design |
Mobile website |
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Creating a responsive design is more difficult, than creating a mobile site. |
Creating a mobile site is easier, than creating a responsive design. |
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Some designs can hardly be adjusted for mobile devices. |
Design of the mobile website does not depend on the current desktop version. |
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Pop-out navigation can be a problem, because it might be too big for the screen. |
Again, design of the mobile website is independent from the current desktop version. |
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In the most cases, it requires complete redesign of your current website. |
Redesign of your current website is not needed. |
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Coding is complex and expensive. |
Building a mobile website is cheaper, in the most cases. |
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Images become a big problem, because the same picture must look good both on large and small screens. |
You can upload dedicated images designed for small screens to your mobile website. |
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Browser compatibility can be an issue. |
Mobile site can use modern front-end technologies, and no need to worry about compatibility with old desktop browsers. |
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It is easier to update content on responsible websites. |
You will have to update all content twice – on your desktop website and on your mobile website. |
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If you have a non-responsive WordPress theme, you have an opportunity to upgrade it to a responsive design with little effort. |
No matter what platform you use for your desktop website, you need to build your mobile website from scratch. |
You decide whether to go with a responsive design or create a mobile website. While mobile websites look more appealing, for WordPress websites it is worth checking is you can upgrade your theme to a responsive one. Just don’t forget to back up your current website first.
Solostream offers various responsive themes for your mobile-friendly website. Click here to browse the themes: Mobile-Friendly themes.
