It’s about time. Google is experimenting with a mobile search ranking boost for websites that offer a particularly great mobile experience.
In the past, Google has penalized the organic results or SEO of sites that were not mobile friendly. However, avoidance of a penalty is not necessarily the best reason to be proactive and put hours of work into an attractive responsive design. Now that Google is planning to proactively award the best mobile experiences, we should see a vast increase in the presence of mobile friendly websites. So for web designers, what does that mean?
2 Takeaways for Web Designers
First, any web designer worth anything today is aware of and practices responsive design. That said, for smaller clients with minimal budgets, responsive design isn’t always the go-to approach. I predict that that will change. Small and large businesses alike need to keep SEO at the forefront of their digital marketing initiatives. If a responsive design means enhanced organic results, that is a must – no matter the size of your business or budget. As designers, we’ll need to find inexpensive ways to offer responsive design for even our smallest clients. Thanks to WordPress and other CMS platforms, that is wholly possible.
Second, part of our work as designers and developers is to educate our clients. After all, they are hiring an expert for work in a field they are not entirely familiar with. For the past few years we’ve had to get out our soap box and proclaim the immense benefits that responsive design offers our clients. With Google’s new mobile search boost, it’s time to put that soap box back in the closet – at least for now. In addition to the vastly enhanced user experience that responsive design offers, we now have one more reason for our clients to choose responsive design.
So, what are your next steps? If you are not well versed in the ways of responsive design – I recommend that you study it and study it well. Even if you are utilizing WordPress or Drupal themes through Envato or Creative Market, make sure to opt only for responsive templates as the basis for your designs. And if your designing from scratch (more power to you) – well, you know what to do.
