So you saw all the news headlines on how Google "might" give an SEO boost to mobile friendly sites, and you said to yourself that you would think about moving to a mobile friendly website. Then you saw that Google was starting to use a new mobile friendly format, and it reminded you that you had to figure out what to do about converting to a mobile site. Then, finally, mobile usability reports show up in webmaster tools, and you are starting to consider what to do....
Here's a news flash, Google will only wait so long while you try to convince yourself that mobile doesn’t really matter "yet".
Unfortunately, that time may have already started passing you up. Starting in the middle of November, Google released even more tools, and notifications that it is serious about mobile, and you may be missing out while your competitors reap the rewards.
During November, Google not so quietly launched "Mobile-Friendly" labels. These are labels that are shown on search results that tell a mobile user that a site will serve their needs better while on a cell phone or tablet. This is already on top of the fact that they penalize sites that provide a bad experience to these users. If your users haven’t picked up on what sites are better when they are mobile, Google is picking up the slack for them.
What can you do? Google has been not too quiet about their mobile push, and they want to make site owners know how to react. They recently developed some tools to help site owners see what their users are seeing. Googles PageSpeed Insights (https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/) not too recently received a tab for mobile devices, letting you see how long it takes users to pull up pages on your site, on desktop and mobile. This will allow you to view what "grade" Google assigns to your site on mobile, along with what needs to change to speed your site up…but that’s only one part of the equation. Google has also just released another tool aimed at mobile traffic named Mobile-Friendly Test (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/). Not only does this tool show you how Google and users see your site on mobile, they give you a simple pass or fail. If your site fails, they will give you reasons why, and actually point you to ways to make your pages mobile friendly. Using these tools, Google has taken the guessing out of how they see your site, and how your site will be ranked among other more mobile-friendly sites.
While you contemplate making that mobile leap, your competitors are already moving ahead with their plans. In the world of SEO, mobile is fairly untapped, and is a great place to grab those users you are currently missing. Contact Americaneagle.com to find out how we can help you grab those mobile customers today.