google mobile update

4/21. “Mobilegeddon.” The biggest Google update since Panda and Penguin. There is a new Google update arriving on April 21, and this time around it is a large one that’s pretty important for every website owner to know about. This particular update focuses on mobile content and mobile access for searchers, and if your website is not mobile-friendly, it is likely to suffer some serious consequences. In this blog, I’m going to look at the top ways you can prepare your content for this mobile update, helping you stay on the good side of Google so your site doesn’t get de-ranked in this big major update. 11 Ways to Make Your Content Ready for Mobile Users Here are the top ways to make your mobile content phenomenal for your readers AND satisfy Google’s new update. 1. You MUST have a mobile friendly site. This is also called “responsive” or “adaptive design.” If your designer or developer hasn’t done it yet, I’m serious: pick up the phone and dial them right now. You, my friend, need a mobile site. Why? First, because Google is claiming to de-rank ALL sites that are not mobile with their update. I don’t want that to happen to you. Next, let’s actually think of the viewer’s experience. When people view content on their mobile devices, they don’t want to have to squint when reading it. You don’t want to make your font overly large from the beginning, but you do want it to be a decent size to be viewed on a mobile screen. However, you should also make your content easy to make larger. If you have a smartphone or tablet, think about a time you needed to see the page clearer – you use your fingers and zoom in to make the font and content larger. This is what you want your content to be able to do, and it needs to be able to be easily zoomed in without distortion of images, videos, or text. Your webmaster should be able to make your site mobile-friendly. 2. Responsive Vs. Adaptive: Two Options For Your Website. A great way to prepare your content is to make sure you already have a conversion plan in mind and use one that will benefit your site. There are two different ones, adaptive and responsive design. Adaptive can help figure out which device a client is using, and adapt to that format, and responsive can help adapt to all sizes of mobile screens. Doing my research, it looks like responsive seems to be the better method. It is cheaper, and Google also prefers it, according to Search Engine Land. Responsive design allows for you to use proper SEO for your mobile site, and gives you the opportunity to reach a wide range of people no matter their device or screen size. While adaptive seems like it would be preferable, HubSpot does point out that responsive will immediately adapt to future devices. You can find responsive design plugins on some hosting sites or you can find mobile site professionals that can help you make the switch. 3. Always Monitor that Your Website’s Navigation is Easy and Stress-free. This is important whether it is on your desktop site or mobile. Navigation is a big part of user experience (UX), and you want to make sure UX is top notch. Google has already implemented UX into its algorithms, and it will be even more important once the mobile update is live. UX incorporates many facets from the usability of your site to the content you’ve written, and navigation is a big part of usability. Make sure it is easy for your customers to navigate on your mobile site to help make a better UX for all involved. This will help rank with Google and help you keep bringing clients back to your site from their smartphones or tablets. 4. Create a Mobile App for Your Business and Website. An excellent way to get your content to adapt to mobile and have an excellent mobile presence is to not only update your site, but also to create a mobile app. Mobile apps are a great way to get your company out there and make it more visible to your clients. Once they download it, it will be there on their phone, being a constant reminder of your business and services. It can also help you stand out from the competition, especially in industries that don’t focus too much on mobile marketing. There is an excellent article on All Business Experts that details how you can create your own mobile app from scratch to help leverage your company and get more results from your mobile campaign! Don’t get too overwhelmed about a mobile app, take a bit to sit down and think it over because you don’t want to miss out on this awesome opportunity. 5. Consider Using QR Codes for Products. You know those funny looking square, pixelated boxes you see on products and coupons? Those are QR codes and are great ways to link offline content to a mobile device. It can allow people to access deals on products or share information about a product after they’ve received it. QR codes are excellent for marketing, and you can do many things with them from engaging your clients to giving more product information, and many other awesome marketing ideas. You can use a QR code generator tool to create these QR codes. Now, let’s look at actual mobile content improvements you can make: 6. Create Different Lengths of Content. When it comes to the content length wars, longer content is always the best idea for your long-form blogs and resource pages. Research shows that people prefer longer content because they love getting in-depth information and often feel a longer piece is more trustworthy. However, when it comes to mobile content, you want to have varying lengths especially on your main pages to let people choose the length they want to read. Short content is easier to consume on mobile because many people … Read more