BLOG: How mobile friendly is your website? - NextGear Capital Ireland
How many of your website visitors come from mobile devices? Websites are no longer just an online listing of vehicles only on your forecourt, and more dealerships are harnessing the power of their website to convert cold prospects to loyal customers. With this in mind, Google are ensuring that the consumer is provided with the most relevant websites from their searches through regular updates.
The most recent ‘mobile friendly’ update was released on Tuesday 21st April and although Google advised of the upcoming changes, the response in the digital marketing world has been loud! These updates from Google can create extra work for businesses and can be costly but Google believes by organisations conforming, the updated websites will create a long term return for those that stay abreast of the changing digital landscape.
When I heard about the latest Google update penalising websites that are not responsive - I breathed a sigh of relief! Having a website that our dealers can use on the go was a fundamental aspect of our design work over 12 months ago to ensure a smooth and easy experience for our customers. For those without a responsive website, what does that actually mean? Why did Google implement this potentially harsh criteria?
Google insists that over 50% of searches are conducted via mobile devices, however their update will only affect search rankings for those conducted on mobile devices. If your customers peruses the web looking for a used car, for example, on their laptop then you won’t see any negative effect. However if your customers are shopping for a van whilst watching the TV in the evening and do so from their smart phone and your website isn’t mobile friendly, you will see your rankings drop and potentially miss out on this business.
However all is not lost, the other caveat is that Google have made this relevant for individual pages and not entire websites. The potential solution is to use the simple information available for free in Google Analytics and identify your popular landing pages. Look to amend these pages as a starting point, before taking on the task of reworking your entire website. Google have a lot of helpful advice available and you can check if your website is mobile friendly by inputting your URL at http://bit.ly/mobilehappy
To find out more read Google’s official blog about the update: http://bit.ly/googleapr
Thanks for reading!
Sue Thornton
Sales and Marketing Manager
