Google is continuing its push to get us all to have “mobile-friendly” sites with the introduction this month of labels in the results shown on mobile devices. These tell users that the site will display well on a mobile device, and should help clickthrough rates. I haven’t heard that simply passing the “mobile-friendly” test will get your site a better ranking in the Google results on mobile devices, but an improved clickthrough rate should have an impact on this in its own right. Here’s what the label looks like:
That seems to be an endorsement worth having, although irritatingly, the label has forced the end of the carefully-crafted description to be cut off.
Your next question will of course be: “Is my site considered mobile-friendly by Google?” and of course the easiest way to find out is to search for your company name on a mobile device. However, there’s also a tool to investigate, which will give you some feedback if your site is not mobile-friendly. You can find it here, and the results look something like this:
Is this all worth it? Do professional B2B prospects use mobile devices? Of course they do, even if instinctively you would imagine they’re usually on desktop PCs when they’re sourcing suppliers. The Audience > Mobile report in Google Analytics for most of our clients seems to suggest that between 5% and 15% of visits to sites in our sector are on mobile devices, and the proportion is growing. Perhaps most of these are just people looking up your contact details, but even so, making life easier for them makes business sense. Don’t forget that a huge proportion of email is read on mobile devices, and when people click through from a link on their email, they’re not magically transported to their desktop PC. “Mobile-unfriendly” landing pages in email promotions are a major own-goal.