Small business are still oblivious to the impact of Google’s new Mobile search standards. But over the next year, it will start to show.
How Google’s Mobilegeddon affects you?
I have the proud ownership of a pool, and with it the maintenance needs and costs. So I took to searching for some local help.
Results yielded on my iPhone were plentiful, however, only some of the results were useful and the experience I had on most of the vendors websites were terrible, responsive or not.
Some of the results that were “mobile friendly” were not really responsive designed, yet a website that had a mobile plugin. Quality in the mobile experience is directly tied to the design, looking good on the desktop is as important as looking good on mobile.
Your site should have easily readable fonts, rich images (if required) and clear information presented for what I’m looking for. I don’t want to deal with popups, or have to pinch to zoom to read your copy, especially on a RWD site. I just want to know 1) can I trust you (depends on the quality of the site and clearly marked accreditation) and 2) easily find contact information.
Mobile Plugins vs Responsive Web Design (RWD)
Mobile Plugins (not necessarily meaning WordPress Plugins), load a site from a separate mobile skin that is optimized for mobile viewing. Only certain aspects of your site will load in the interest of keeping things fast to load for the user. For example, the blog page or other depending on the settings used.
Though not true RWD, mobile plugins are effective and fast, but still require knowing what information should be displayed and the plugins (if a WordPress plugin) have to be configured.
Responsive Web Design (RWD) is the use of a fluid layout that responds to the user’s device and orientation of the device (portrait and landscape).
This option mimics the users experience they would have on a desktop. No third party plugins are needed, and if coded correctly, can be just as fast with a strong hosting platform to back the load times required.
Both will get you around the new Google search standards, but I can’t help but think that while most businesses are going to go the less expensive route, it’ll only mean that mobile plugins and adaptive sites will give way to Responsive as the user experience is often better and users can access all pages of the sites they visit.
