To find out whether Google sees your site as mobile-friendly, you can check your site with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. How did your site fare? If it did well, you are good to go! If it could use some improvements, read on!

Responsive and Adaptive Design

A mobile-friendly website starts with a responsive or adaptive WordPress theme. Responsive design means that as the screen narrows, so do the elements within the screen. This is ideal for smaller screen sizes such as smartphones.

Adaptive design is similar except that when the screen narrows to a specific predefined breakpoint, the elements will adapt. This works well for larger screen sizes. You can even see this at work on your desktop computer. Go to Iceberg Web Design’s home page and then slowly make the browser window smaller. As you do, you will see some changes take place. The menu changes, text, and images get smaller.

If your site is not responsive or adaptive, it was likely built before the responsive code frameworks came out. In that case, it will be easier to rebuild your site with the current code.  

Create a Mobile-Friendly Site from the Beginning.

It starts with the design of your site. It helps to keep in mind that your site will have to look good on a small screen. It isn’t just a shrunken version of the way your site looks on PC. Using a grid helps a lot with this. They make your design more balanced and appealing. They offer the ideal adaptable structure that works well for both a full-sized desktop and mobile design.

Make your content Mobile Friendly

Remove distractions on the page. This is clutter on the page that slows load time and makes it harder for users to get to the information they want to find. You can help users find what they need most by showing your most important information at the top of the page. Then, offer additional information when people ask for it.

Use large, standard fonts to make copy easy to read and buttons that are large and ideally at the bottom of the screen and opposite of the thumb.

Don’t just shrink the screen. Stack it.

When adapting a page for mobile, you may come across columns that become too narrow to be of any practical use. You should stack one on top of the other to create a more visually appealing, mobile-friendly page.

Adapt your images for Mobile

As your screen-size gets smaller, you will want to reduce the size of icons, images, and other visual elements. Play around with it a bit because you don’t want these design elements to become so small that they are useless.

Pay Attention to Your Navigation Menu

A full menu isn’t going to span your smartphone’s screen the way it does your desktop screen. It would be much too small to read. At Iceberg, we use something known as a “hamburger menu.” It’s different from the one at your favorite drive-thru. The hamburger menu compresses your menu into a vertical, tappable, drop-down menu.

Keep the Mobile User in Mind.

Desktop users are sitting at home or in their office. Mobile users are usually on the go. It’s essential to keep this in mind when designing your site. On desktop computers, it’s common to see a call to action asking the user to download something free such as an article (usually in exchange for their email address). On a mobile phone, that’s not practical. Sometimes changes must be made right down to the content. In this case, when the screen is a mobile configuration, the call-to-action can change to request “Get the Free Article.” You still request their email address, and the article gets sent to them so they can download or print it later at their convenience.

The post Ways to Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Google is Starting to Migrate Sites That Follow the Best Practices to Mobile First Indexing.

What this means is that your mobile version of your website will be the origin point for their index database, as well as the baseline for how they determine rankings.

Google’s ranking system, indexing and crawling systems all formerly used the desktop versions of websites when ranking websites. With the increase in mobile traffic, which has surpassed desktop traffic, has led Google to recognize mobile users as their primary visitors. The new indexing will provide better results for mobile users and desktop users. The mobile version of your site will now be considered the primary version of your site.

This Does Not Represent a Change in How Google is Regarding Your Content

Up until now your desktop version has been considered the “primary version” of your site and the mobile version an “alternate” version. This is just the start of a transition in how Google is prioritizing the way they will index your website.

Google also explains that it will have one index for search results, not a mobile-first index that’s separate from its main index. In other words, it will start to look to the mobile web pages to index the web, not the desktop version.

It is about how they go about crawling and indexing the web. Before, they crawled and indexed the web as a desktop browser would see the web page. Now with this change, Google is crawling and indexing the web as a mobile browser would see the web page.
Here’s what the official post from Google Webmasters has to say about the mobile-first index. (https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/11/mobile-first-indexing)

“To make our results more useful, we’ve begun experiments to make our index mobile-first. Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results. Of course, while our index will be built from mobile documents, we’re going to continue to build a great search experience for all users, whether they come from mobile or desktop devices.”

Mobile Users are Pushing the Change to Mobile-First Indexing

This change to mobile first indexing is primarily driven by the increase in mobile traffic over the years. Mobile is far outpacing desktop as the number one method of searching.

Google is referring to this as “primarily mobile” that the majority of people who use Google search today now do so from mobile devices, and have done so since 2015. Mobile-friendliness has long been one of the many factors in determining how a site is ranked, but it’s not the only factor. For example, there are times when a non-mobile-friendly page still has the best information and will appear higher, Google says.

Google has begun to prioritize mobile sites in several ways. For example, it began to boost the rank of mobile-friendly sites on mobile search results back in 2015, and more recently said it was adding a signal that uses page speed to help determine a page’s mobile search ranking. Starting in July 2018, slow-loading content will be down ranked.

While Google today claims the mobile-friendly indexing won’t directly impact how content is ranked, it does note that having a site’s mobile-friendly content indexed in this new fashion will likely help the site “perform better” in mobile search results.

Is the Mobile-First Index Live and Affecting My Site Now?

Google has been experimenting with mobile first indexing on a small number of sites which were selected based on perceived “readiness”. A wider rollout will take much longer. In June 2017, Gary Illyes stated that it will probably take a few years before “we reach an index that is only mobile-first.” Google reassured site owners who are not included in this rollout that rankings would not be affected and that sites which only have desktop content would still be indexed.

“Sites that are not in this initial wave don’t need to panic. Mobile-first indexing is about how we gather content, not about how content is ranked. Content gathered by mobile-first indexing has no ranking advantage over mobile content that’s not yet gathered this way or desktop content. Moreover, if you only have desktop content, you will continue to be represented in our index.”

However, the push towards mobile-friendly sites continues with Google noting that mobile-friendly content can perform better, and that slow loading content will be a ranking factor for mobile searches from July 2018 on.

Is Mobile-First Indexing Adding Mobile Pages to a Separate Mobile Index?

With mobile-first indexing, there is only one search index (the same one Google uses now). The change to mobile-first indexing does not generate a new “mobile-first” index, nor is it creating a separate “mobile index” with a “desktop index” remaining active. Instead, it simply changes how content is added to the existing index.

So What Does This Mean for You?

You Might Have to Make Some Changes to Your Website if You Want to Continue to Rank Well Into the Future.

If your website is responsive and both the mobile version and desktop are identical, you might not have to do anything. However, you want to make sure that your website is both mobile responsive and has content that is mobile-friendly. Meaning that your users are having the same great content experience across all devices. This will help you rank well on both mobile and desktop. It follows from a mobile-first indexing standpoint that your content should be produced with mobile-first users in mind. Google has already prioritized mobile-friendly content, and this official indexing move is just making it more official.

The post What is Mobile First Indexing? appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

…or are they?

Business Owners Have Been Slow To Adapt To Mobile-Friendliness

In this world where information is consumed primarily on mobile devices, one would think that the average business owner would be on top of important changing trends in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). However, just earlier this year it was estimated that nearly half of small businesses do not yet have a website – and moreover, of those that do have websites, nearly one-third do not perform well on mobile devices.

Many business owners saw significant traffic changes from the algorithm update, though many companies noticed little difference in their traffic, even after refusing to go mobile-friendly. But this is all about to change.

Google Isn’t Taking No For An Answer Any More. 

If you are in the group of business owners who decided not to update your website, or if you were sold an inexpensive “separate mobile-friendly option”, things are about to change for your Google rankings. And this time, it’s for real.

Google will now check your mobile website’s content before your desktop website’s content when ranking.

What, exactly, does this mean? In a nutshell, it means that if you are delivering two websites to your customers (separate Desktop vs. Mobile websites), the mobile version is what Google will use to determine where to place you among your competition. When a business has two separate websites (mobile and desktop), more often than not the mobile site is a simplified version designed only to lead visitors to contact the business and not to rank on search engines. These small mobile-only websites lack the content that is needed to rank on search engines – and this is going to affect the placement of the full (Desktop) version.

The days of Desktop vs. Mobile are gone – today Google recommends a responsive website, where the exact same website and set of content are delivered to desktop and mobile visitors alike. 

Buying a responsive template won’t cut it.

Yes, a cheap responsive theme may do the trick and make your website mobile-friendly. It might make Google happy for a while. But if your website is not built as a sales funnel, to convert traffic to leads, it’s not going to do you any good. Take a look at some of the low-cost templates on a smartphone before you buy, and take a look at your competition on mobile. Do the headlines flow on mobile? Can you vision your current set of content and pictures displaying on a smartphone? Do you know what it takes to convert traffic to leads on a mobile device?

A lot more than just the quick-and-dirty responsive design markup goes into creating a professional business website that will close leads. Our Minneapolis website developers have been hand-coding websites since 1993; we have more than 60 years of combined experience, and we have all been working in this field since the dawn of the smartphone technology. Our online marketing experts know what needs to be done to make your website go from just mobile-friendly to a mobile lead generating machine. Call 763-350-8762 to talk with an online marketing expert today.

The post It’s Official: Google Won’t Let You Get Away With A Non-Responsive Website Any More appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

The Impact of Google’s Recent Algorithm Change

Before diving into logic steeped in data, consider how you consume content in your day-to-day life. Do you read articles between meetings, during your commute, while absentmindedly walking around? It’s no surprise that a lot of these activities happen on a mobile device of some type. Data shows that desktop content consumption is going down and mobile content consumption is taking it’s place. As such, search has been affected and Google’s recent algorithm change is an attempt to make sense of these behaviors.

So how does this impact your website?

Let’s start with the bad news.

In a recent study undertaken by Adobe, it was found that organic traffic was down up to 10% among websites with low mobile engagement. Regardless of the volume of traffic to your website, 10% is not a number to scoff at. This problem has snowballed due to marketers driving up costs for pay-per-click advertising, which in turn has lead to higher costs overall for un-optimized websites. And while the costs are higher, the return is lower – not as many people are clicking through or completing conversions as before Google’s “Mobilegeddon.” Adobe is reporting that Google is “losing ground as a marketing vehicle,” but their report draws quick conclusions for a bigger problem. Obviously, if every website had taken charge of being mobile-friendly before Google reflected a need for it in how it populates search results, websites would not have been affected.

The good news?

Google’s recent algorithm change rewards websites that have adjusted to the masses consuming content on their mobile devices. If your website already has a responsive design, you may not have to make many or any changes to take advantage of the way search works now. If not, it’s definitely time to consider a change. And it’s not too late to make a change! But don’t wait – any website changes take time, often months, for a search engine to recognize. Don’t let too much time lapse or the problem will compound.

So what are your options?

You could ignore the changes and dig yourself into a whole with less traffic, higher pay-per-click-prices, and a lower return on paid advertising. Obviously, that’s not ideal and will cost your business a lot in the long run. Or, you could make your website mobile-friendly. You can opt to retrofit your website with responsive design, or redesign with a version that is mobile-friendly from the get-go. To see how your website appears on a smartphone, check out our smartphone simulator.

Our Minneapolis website development company can help you to determine what makes the most sense for your business and website. Contact us for more information regarding responsive design or a responsive retrofit.

The post The Impact of Google’s Recent Algorithm Change appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, the year’s prime holiday shopping season, a whopping 32% of Google search traffic came from mobile devices. One study showed that 30% of all e-commerce website traffic came from mobile devices in 2013. And with so many holiday gifts being smartphones and tablets last year, it stands to reason that those statistics will only increase for the 2014 holiday season.

Now that November is here, the 2014 Holiday Shopping Season is in full swing. Is your website ready for online customers this year? Whether you have a retail or service business, online holiday marketing is essential. Even though you may not plan to sell products on your website this year, you will likely see an increase in website traffic this quarter. Shoppers are not just looking for gifts this year – they are also shopping for home improvement projects, plumbing fixes before holiday guests arrive, carpet cleaning services, car detailing, restaurants to stop at between gift-buying outings…and the list goes on.

Below are 6 simple things you can do to make sure your website is ready for your customers this holiday season:

1. Make sure your website is optimized for mobile viewing.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but so many e-commerce websites are still using software from 2009 (or earlier!), and haven’t yet invested in modern website programming or design. If you’re a business owner with an online storefront, do you know how easy it is for your customers to purchase from their smartphones? Give it a try – pull out your own smartphone, and see how many clicks it takes, and how much you have to pinch-and-zoom just to add a product to your shopping cart.

Mobile friendly websites are not only good for customer sales and retention, but they also increase trust for your business and your brand. Consumers want to feel safe when purchasing from their smartphones, and if your website has been built so smartphone shopping is simple, your customers will know your site has been built with mobile shopping in mind.

2. Update your home page for the Holidays

First impressions are crucial – and your website visitors are going to be influenced to act within 3 seconds of loading your website. Do you have a slideshow on your home page? Incorporate some fun new holiday-inspired photography into it! Showcase some of your products or holiday specials.

A basic re-design of the home page of your content can attract clients without breaking the bank. Looking for ideas? We can help give you some suggestions!

3. Spruce up your SEO with some holiday marketing language

Did you know that you can control exactly what Google displays to your customers? Give your business a search online – the title of your website pages and the description that falls below them are all things that can be edited by your website developer. Marketing a product or a service specifically for the holiday season? Have a great Christmas promo going on? Say so (in less than 150 characters) right on Google’s organic search results.

If you don’t have an online store, but want to encourage people to call or e-mail you for seasonal specials or holiday orders, publish your contact information directly in this description so people can contact you fast.

4. Get your online inventory and shipping schedules together early

Nobody likes it when they purchase a product online, only to receive a phone call three days later to find out that their item is out of stock or won’t be delivered until December 26th. Make sure your holiday shopping schedule, shipping expectations, and return policy are clearly stated on your home page and thought the checkout process on your website.

5. Publish a Holiday E-mail Newsletter

An e-mail newsletter is a great way to contact potential customers directly and inexpensively. A branded e-mail newsletter cost less to send out than printed postcards and letters – and recent research shows that the return on e-mail marketing is actually higher than that of postal mail.

People are more inclined to impulse shop during the holiday season, so if you send out an e-mail newsletter featuring some great, inexpensive holiday gifts or must-haves, you may find some new customers visiting your online store this season.

6. Spice up your Social Media posts

Create funny, themed Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ posts this holiday season. Fun facts, jokes, and information are great ways to engage comments on your social media profiles. And don’t forget the picture! Adding a picture to a social media update will increase the post’s chance of being seen and shared. There are a number of websites that offer free holiday stock photographs (like this one) – or be creative and hire a photographer to come out and take some pictures of your staff dressed in Elf suits.

Need some extra help with your holiday marketing?

You can accomplish a lot of these things yourself, or with a little help from your website developer. Need some more inspiration or help with marketing this holiday season? Contact us for a free website consultation – we would be happy to talk about your current website, offer some suggestions for how you can make improvements, and talk about a long term marketing strategy to bring you more business.

And most importantly – don’t forget to have a happy holiday season yourself!

The post Website Marketing Strategies for the 2014 Holiday Season appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

It’s almost 2015. Technology has been a game changer for many small businesses. By now, most professional website developers are including smartphone compatibility and responsive design in their list of website development services. Businesses are investing in app development – and advertisers are purchasing in-app screen time.

But perhaps the biggest indication of the changing times is this:

Baby Boomers are the Fastest Growing Demographic for New Smartphone Purchases.

It’s true. Since 2011, the number of Baby Boomers using smartphones has been steadily increasing. By 2015, Baby Boomers (age 50 and up) will represent 45% of the US population – and they are also the wealthiest subsection of the population, with folks 55 and older controlling more than three quarters of America’s wealth. Today, 36% of Baby Boomers own a smartphone, and nearly half of them use the Internet and check e-mail every day from it. Nearly 35% of all tablet users are adults age 45+, and 47% of adults older than 73 now shop online.

Marketing to Baby Boomers should be at the front of every forward-thinking business owner’s mind. And as we all know, marketing today is all about mobile:

Your next website visitor will be using a mobile device.

Mobile web is no longer the future. It is here and now, and your customers expect your website to function properly on their smartphone. People don’t pinch-and-zoom on their tiny screens to read content any more. Smartphones are all about convenience and saving time: if a person lands on a website that does not display well on their cell phone, they are going to simply move on.

How can we be so sure that your next website visitor will be on a mobile device? Take these statistics into consideration while you think about the shape of your business’s website today:

60% of All Online Traffic Now Comes from Mobile Devices.

If you are actively monitoring your website statistics, then you know that mobile use is on the rise. The Small Business Trends website published an article in July of 2014 that notes that mobile traffic – smartphones and tablets combined – are now responsible for 60 percent of all online traffic. About half of that traffic is from mobile apps – leaving the other half to mobile web. The same study also suggested that 23% of all organic website traffic is coming from smartphones – with 12% from tablets.

32% of Google Searches are Done on Mobile Devices.

MarketingChart’s report on the mobile share of search engine visits makes it clear: 1/3 of all Google Searches are now done on mobile devices. This study is from the third quarter in 2013, so it’s nearly a year outdated already – by now that number has certainly increased. If you are investing in SEO, or rely on people to find your business online by searching, then be prepared for your website to welcome 1/3 of your visitors who find you there on their smartphones.

2 in 3 Americans Own Smartphones Today.

You probably already knew this the day you saw your dad walk into a restaurant and snap a quick picture of his dinner with his smartphone – but there are now significantly more people who own smartphones in America than don’t. A study done by Nielson suggested that 65% of Americans owned smartphones in 2013. This increase is affecting how Americans spend their free time as well – on average, Americans spend 34 hours a month using mobile apps and browsing the web on their mobile devices. This number is actually more time than they spent on their Desktop computers every month!

Google Mobile Search uses Device Compatibility as a Ranking Tool – and Google Prefers Responsive Design.

Even Google has taken a stand on device compatibility – and Google has clearly stated that it prefers responsive design over other mobile-friendly design techniques. But don’t take our word for it – hop over to Google and read their recommendations in their own words:

With increasing smartphone usage, making a website that is friendly to smartphone users has now become a critical part of website management. This document outlines Google’s recommendations to webmasters who wish to serve content in optimized formats for both desktop and smartphone users, and notes the common mistakes you want to avoid. We have pages about websites for tablets and feature phones too.

70% of Mobile Searches Lead to Action.

It isn’t enough to simply state that more and more people are using smartphones today. The overwhelming statistic that ties it all together is this one: 70% of searches performed on mobile devices will lead to action on websites within one hour. People are constantly seeking information, and they are using their mobile phones more and more to do so. And in fact – people are using their smartphones to make decisions about the products and services they will purchase. User experience is critical – and if your website isn’t ready for your mobile audience, you are going to start losing real business.

What does my website look like on a smartphone?

So, what’s the next step? Your dad has become accustomed to visiting websites on his smartphone – is your website ready for him? Have you tested your website on various devices?

Iceberg Web Design has a tool on our website that allows you to see how your website performs on a small screen. As part of our website development process, we take this a step further – we make sure that your website performs well on real devices, not just our simulation tool.

If you would like to see how your website looks on a real mobile device, contact us today for a free website consultation. We would be happy to further explain the value of a mobile-optimized website, show you some real examples from our website design portfolio, and discuss how we can make your website ready for everyone – even your dad.

[iwd_divider type=”solid” size=”100%” ]

Article Sources and additional resources:

• Immersion Active: 50+ Fact & Fiction
• 60 Percent of Online Traffic Now Comes from Mobile
• Mobile Share of Search Engine Visits
• Two-thirds of Americans now have smartphones
• Google Developers: Building Smartphone-Optimized Websites
• Mobile Behavior: Big Game Seating

The post Your Dad Has a Smartphone. Is Your Website Ready? appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.