Google Mobile-Friendly - Ignition NBS

Google now checks all website listing to see if it is mobile-friendly. If you’ve run a search on Google from a mobile device recently you may have noticed the label “Mobile-friendly” appearing next to the descriptions of some websites. Ignition’s Sam Matthew explains what it’s all about.

Google “Mobile-friendly”

In late 2014, Google launched a “Mobile-friendly” label across its mobile search results. Mobile users can now see straight away if a site is mobile friendly or not.

Faced with one mobile-friendly site and a long list of unfriendly sites – trends shows that consumers will increasingly opt for ease.

Mobile phone and tablet users are likely to start avoiding unfriendly websites, saving the frustration of trying to navigate through a site that’s only been designed with the desktop user in mind. So, if your site meets the mobile-friendly criteria and achieves the label, it could help increase mobile click-through rates to your site.

Also, Google have warned that websites that don’t meet the criteria maybe penalised in the future with mobile-friendly being used as a ranking factor. There’s therefore a real danger that your site could get less visitors if it doesn’t make the grade.

Does mobile-friendly matter?

It will be of no surprise that the volume of people using smart devices to access the internet has increased rapidly in recent years. Some sources suggest it’s already overtaken desktop traffic. But this growth hasn’t been driven just by kids – the number of adults using tablets to go online has almost doubled; from 16% in 2012 to 30% in 2013. Six in ten UK adults (62%) now use a smartphone, an increase from 54% in 2012. The real growth is driven by 25-34s and 45-54s, and those aged 65-74 are almost twice as likely to use a smartphone now compared to 2012 (Source: Ofcom 2014).

And it’s not just personal use. A worldwide survey by IDG Global in 2014 identified that mobile is preferred over the desktops by business leaders/owners (Executives) conducting research:
• 92 percent of executives own a smartphone used for business.
• 77 percent of executives use their smartphone to research a product or service for their business.
(Source: http://www.idgglobalsolutions.com/idg-mobile-survey-2014)

Impact on Insurance brokers

Traffic on insurance brokers’ websites does lag behind these “business executive” statistics. Web analytics for a number of brokers’ websites show mobile visitors account for anything between 5% and 45%, but typically, at Ignition, we’d expect around 35% of broker traffic to come from mobile. The more popular sites and those focused on Personal Lines customers are achieving closer to 50%. The overriding trend though is that year-on-year, on every site, mobile traffic is becoming much more important.

What is a mobile-friendly site?

Websites that have been designed purely with desktop or laptop users in mind can be frustrating for mobile users to navigate around. The smaller screen size means that text can be difficult to read, navigation buttons harder to press and some functionality just doesn’t work.

Google considers a website to be mobile friendly if:
• Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
• Uses text that is readable without zooming
• Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
• Links are far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped

To achieve this you don’t need a separate site to cater for your mobile traffic. Web developers use a method called “Responsive Design” where the design of a website responds to the size of the screen it’s being viewed on. Users accessing the site on large desktop monitors or small mobile phone screens see a design that’s optimised for them, so everyone is happy.

So is your website mobile-friendly or as Google would say “Awesome”?

Ignition carried out tests on a random selection of insurance broker websites. We found that 59.18% of the brokers’ websites failed to achieve the “mobile-friendly” label.

To find out if Google thinks your website is mobile-friendly simply go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

Enter your website you; it takes only 30 seconds to find out if your “Awesome” or not.

Or if not – it outlines some of the reasons why – such as links too close together, mobile viewpoint not set, text too small to read.

If your site passes the test, Google will display the “mobile-friendly” label next to your site in its listings.

Conclusion

With growing volumes of visitors using mobile devices to access your website, you cannot afford to ignore their user experience. With the introduction of Google’s mobile-friendly label, it may be time to upgrade your old website in favour of a site that utilises responsive design? Need help? Get in touch with Ignition!