Is my website mobile-friendly? is a question that I get asked all of the time. Well I’m going to show you how you can check this easily in a moment, but first I’d like to quickly recap on ‘what mobile friendly’ web design means and why it matters to your business.
If you use a smartphone to browse the Internet, then I’m sure at some stage you’ve experienced the frustration of trying to look at a website only for it to load slowly or you find the writing’s just too small. Pinching and zooming in an attempt to read the page becomes difficult even for the more advanced users.
So mobile-friendly is the term used for websites that can be easily used on the whatever device they are being viewed on, particularly smartphones and tablets.
So this could include things like;
- Text is big enough to read
- Buttons are big enough to press with your thumb
- You can swipe and slide to reveal new content
- Pages load quickly
Google will find you more attractive
Aside from creating a much more enjoyable experience for your visitors, having a mobile friendly website is now actually a recommendation from Google. This means that if your website doesn’t work properly on these devices then you may be penalised and subsequently pushed further down the Google search engine rankings.
So how can we tell? Is my website mobile-friendly?
Here are a few things that you can do to check to see if your website is mobile-friendly.
1.Load it up on a mobile device.
If your website is hard to read then it’s quite likely that it’s not mobile friendly.
2. Check it on a normal desktop browser
If you don’t have a smartphone at hand, you can always check using your web browser on your desktop computer. You can then resize your browser window and see what happens when you get to the same kind of size as a smartphone screen. Websites that adjust automatically are known as responsive websites and are commonly regarded as one of the easiest ways to future-proof your website.
3. Check using Google’s mobile friendly test
It’s always worth-while checking using Google’s mobile website checker just to be safe. Click here and enter your website address.
What can you do if your website isn’t mobile friendly?
If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, then it might be worth starting to think about planning for some future development. ‘Responsive websites’ are the best way to ensure that your compatible with all devices both today and tomorrow.
If you’re still unsure or would like some advice regarding upgrading your website, then please feel free to request a call with one of our experts by clicking here.