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Tomorrow Google are going to roll out one of the biggest search algorithm updates in years. In simple terms, when you’re on a mobile device such as a smart phone or a tablet, mobile-friendly responsive websites are going to get priority ranking over unoptimised websites in 'mobile' search.

This has caused some uncertainty about the possible reduction in traffic to our clients websites.

Before I continue, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about responsive design and what it actually is. There are a few terms used for this phenomenon that essentially mean the same thing - responsive design, mobile-friendly and optimised websites.

With responsive design the layout of a website changes depending on the screen size and capabilities of the device you are using to browse. You can see a responsive website in action by changing the size of your browser window and watch as everything magically aligns itself to suit any size you set it to.

You can also check to see if your website is responsive by using Google’s Mobile Friendly Test.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

To see responsive in action on TOTECS, have a look at one of the latest responsive eCommerce websites implemented on the platform Powell Industrial View it in a browser on your desktop and shrink your browser window down to the size of your mobile phone. Notice how the elements change for the mobile view As of tomorrow, websites that are optimised for mobiles will be getting priority rankings on Google when searching from a mobile device. If your website is mobile friendly and someone is searching using a smart phone or a tablet, its very likely that Google will increase the priority of your ranking over other mobile friendly websites. That said, it’s not a guarantee. Google simply uses the mobile-friendly status as another factor in determining where your site ranks on mobile searches.

An important thing I want to address is that this will not affect regular Google searches on your desktop. Your website will not be ‘punished’ for not being mobile friendly.

There are two ways to have your website become mobile friendly on Google. You either implement a mobile optimised website separate to your desktop site or convert your website into a responsive website using a responsive framework. The first approach is problematic because you need to maintain two separate websites. Double the content, double the admin. To overcome this, the web design world came up with a way to style the website’s content and layout so that it responds differently based on the viewers browser size and presents content optimised for that view.

Designing a website to be responsive requires a lot of smarts and styling embedded into your website structure. Early on in the responsive game (circa 2010 – 2013), responsive websites were very frustrating to build because it was difficult to support older browser versions which a majority of users were still using. Furthermore, Google initially dropped rank for responsive websites because it was not familiar with the unusual structure of the web pages. Fast forward to 2015 and times have most definitely changed.

The Content Management System in TOTECS supports either of the two responsive frameworks.

So before you freak out about your website not being mobile friendly, it would be a great idea to find out how many of your visitors are actually visiting your website from mobile devices.

The first step in finding this out is to make sure you have Google Analytics running on your website. If you are unsure, we can help you find out. If it turns out you don’t have it enabled, you can choose to do it yourself or alternatively we can implement this for you. To find out the costs involved shoot service@totecs.com an email with your enquiry.

Once you have determined that you do indeed have Google Analytics, log into your account and select your website from the list. As you can see in the image below, there is a menu on the left hand side. When you login the Audience menu is usually expanded, if it isn’t, click it. Click on Mobile and then Overview. This will give you a breakdown of your mobile users stats. As you can see with this particular website the total combined users on smart phones and tablets exceed the browser users. Google’s algorithm changes will affect the traffic to this website.

As a last point I want to discuss implementing responsive design into your current website. It’s not as simple as flicking the on switch. Responsive design is a process and it takes time to implement the foundation of your website again.

If you have reviewed your mobile analytics and want to explore the possibility of a responsive website, shoot us an email or give us a call on 1300 123 500.

Til next week,
Kasia