Be Ready For Google’s Mobile Update on April 21st

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What does your company’s website look like on a mobile device? Be ready for Google’s algorithm update on April 21st.

On April 21st, Google will begin taking mobile-friendliness into account a ranking signal in search. What does this mean? Websites that are not mobile-friendly will see a severe negative impact on their search ranking and organic traffic. Site that are mobile-friendly will likely see a boost! Site that are not mobile-friendly will be penalized by Google.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What exactly is a mobile-friendly website?

A mobile-friendly website is a website that is dedicated to the mobile user experience as well as the restrictions that result from smaller screen sizes. Some mobile websites are separate stand alone sites, but all Connect4 Consulting websites are responsive in that they change adapt automatically depending on the screen size.

If I hire Connect4 Consulting to design a mobile site for me, will that work for Google’s mobile SEO site update?

All Connect4 Consulting websites are built to Google’s standard for mobile search.

How can I know whether my site is mobile-friendly?

Google has a simple tool you can use to determine whether your website is mobile-friendly according to Google. Simply go to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and enter your url. If your site is not mobile-friendly, or if your site is mobile-friendly but has errors, you need to make some changes to your site as soon as possible.

2015 Website Design Trends – What’s Hot and What’s Not

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Website design is constantly evolving. New trends emerge and old trends disappear and then after a few years old trends sometimes reappear. The two dominant themes for 2015 are going to be mobile and user experience and user interface (UX/UI). The best designers focus on user experience because that’s what matters in the end. Design and style are highly subjective and debatable, but it is the user experience that measures the actual success of a website. Therefore, most of these trends relate to UI/UX.

What’s Hot? Simple, flat design elements.
What’s Not? 3-d graphics, drop shadows

Flat Design

The concepts of flat design are pretty simple; strip the object off any design element which is not 100 per cent purposeful in its function. This includes removing any special shadow effects, 3-D graphics and using only flat shapes, buttons and indicators.

What’s Hot? One website that works on all devices.
What’s Not? Separate mobile sites

Responsive Design

Responsive design is here to stay – it just doesn’t make sense to run dedicated mobile websites anymore.

What’s Hot? Websites with long scrolling pages.
What’s Not? Sites with too much navigation

Endless Scrolling

Example of endless scrolling website

Example of endless scrolling website

It took a while, but long scrolling pages have become the norm because it’s far easier to scroll through a site than clicking on buttons and links. This has been aided by the growth of responsive web design, full-width sites, and the use of white space. This doesn’t mean that endless scrolling is everywhere, but it is typically found on home pages and e-commerce product pages. The most notable example is Apple’s page for its iPhone 6.

What’s Hot? Rich custom background.
What’s Not? Stock image or white background

High Quality Custom Background

Plain stock photography no longer works in website design. Websites want to look unique and need to grab a visitor’s attention. Professional photography that is customized to the website’s theme and purpose ensures that a site is unique. HTML video is also being used as a way to establish a distinct, custom look. Bing’s search engine frequently uses HTML 5 powered video backgrounds.

What’s Hot? Interactive storytelling.
What’s Not? Boring websites

Interactive Storytelling

While great content has always been a requirement for a successful website, in 2015 the best websites will be the ones that can tell and sell content through a story. The best example in this regard is the Tesla Motors Your Questions Answered page. The page uses large images and embedded infographics to answer consumer questions about the cars and their features. This website is a very successful example of all of the best 2015 website design trends.

Your Questions Answered Tesla Motors

What’s Hot? Parallax scrolling.
What’s Not? Non-interactive backgrounds

Parallax Scrolling

Parallax scrolling is a design technique where the background scrolls at a slightly different pace relative to the foreground. This adds some depth to the page and is very popular on magazine style websites.

Conclusion

I think we are going to see iterative developments of 2015 website design trends like flat and responsive design in the coming months with an overall focus on optimizing the user experience for mobile and devices of all sizes.

Without a Mobile Presence You Will Be Left Behind

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It’s time to get Mobile!

Without a mobile presence you will be left behind. Take a look at these figures and then take a look at your own website on your iphone or ipad or other tablet or smart phone.

  • There are presently more than 5.3 billion mobile device subscribers.
  • There will be nearly as many mobile devices as there are people in the world by 2015.
  • There are 48 million people in the world who have mobile phones, even though they do not have electricity at home.

The issue is not that everyone has a mobile device, but that these devices give them Internet access – and many of them access the Internet only through their mobile device.

So ask yourself. Am I prepared for this mobile opportunity?

People don’t surf the mobile web. They know what they want and act on it. They want immediate information – your address, news, social media, product information. They recommend, buy, and follow up more than desktop users do.

Mobile Presence Website Requirements
  • Load time – slow kills
  • Mobile searches – you want in
  • Mobile browsers – don’t support video, flash, image galleries, proprietary scripts
  • User experience – convenience matters
Mobile Presence Website Must-Haves
  • Click-to-call buttons
  • Social media buttons
  • Share and Enjoy
  • Google Maps
  • SMS
  • Event Calendards
  • Location Check-In
  • Multimedia
  • News/Blogs
  • E-Commerce
Mobile Presence Website Best Practices
  1. Keep it simple
  2. Prioritize Content – mobile visitors have different priorities from desktop users
  3. Focus on conversion – make it easy for visitors to take action
  4. Take advantage of mobile features – access user location information and offer a more personable experience
  5. Think “Tap-able” not “Clickable”
  6. Navigation – go vertical
  7. Minimize scrolling
  8. Be concise

All of our website redesigns are responsive – mobile friendly. Improve your mobile presence with Connect4 Consulting.