How to Market Your Business in 2017
Happy New Year.
2017 is bringing with it lots of changes on the digital marketing landscape.
None is bigger than Google’s decision to show mobile pages instead of desktop (regular) pages. That means that, if there is a desktop version of your site and a mobile version, Google will show the mobile version in search results.
WHAT?!?!
Relax. It might not be the end of the world. If your site is “responsive,” that is, if the site adjusts to fit the size of the device, then everything is fine. You don’t have to do too much to prepare.
But if your site is not responsive, if it is serving two different versions of the same page, the regular webpage and a special mobile page, you may want to change things.
Is My Site Responsive (i.e. Mobile Friendly)?
How do you know whether or not your site is responsive?
- Use a tool like MobileTest.me or mobiReady
- Enter one of the urls from your site
- If the page displays correctly on all the devices, you’re okay.
- If not, you might need to speak to a developer.
(Alternatively, you can just visit your site on your smart phone.)
Yay! My Site is Responsive!
If your site is responsive, the next thing to do is to make sure your site is mobile friendly in other ways. What I mean by this is that what worked for desktop doesn’t necessarily work for mobile. Google has certain standards for things like page speed (how long it takes for your page to load) that are higher for mobile. You’ll need to make sure your site is up to stuff.
You can use mobiReady to get tips, but Google also has a tool. Since Google is the way most people find your site, you should take what this tool tells you seriously. Unless you’re very handy with code, you’re going to need a developer to make these improvements.
You’re already more than half way there, with a responsive site, but you need to make performance upgrades in order to keep pace with everyone else.
Oh no! My site isn’t responsive!
If your site is not responsive, meaning that you see different pages displayed on the devices in a mobile test, or you see broken page elements on different devices during the test, you will need a responsive site, eventually.
However, maybe the time to do that isn’t now. Maybe you don’t have the budget for it. In the meantime,
- If your site serves mobile pages (meaning that there are special pages that display to mobile phones and tables, often denoted by /mobile/ or /m/ in the url) then you need to check those pages (all of those pages) to make sure that they are working and that they have the same (or better) content than your regular pages. The mobile pages will be what your users will land on.
- If your site doesn’t have mobile pages and isn’t responsive, you need to figure out which is the better option: temporarily serve mobile pages while you can prepare to go responsive (which means creating a host of new pages and content), or go responsive. Not an easy choice I know, but if you don’t do it, you risk eventually dropping out of the search results all together.
I have no idea if my site is responsive or not!
If you are not sure, even after the running the test, you should ask your developer. If you do not have a developer you can get a hold of, you should reach out to someone who can help you.
I am offering a free digital marketing Q and A in January, during which you can ask me about your mobile-friendly questions.
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