We carry our smart devices everywhere with us. Scrolling through a grocery list, double checking that what’s in your cart is on the list. Reading through a news article or two while waiting on a vehicle oil change. Looking up an unfamiliar business name you passed on the street. All of this can be done with a few keystrokes, making it imperative that as a company you take Google’s mobile first approach with your website. Marketing company Nectafy found that a whooping 88 percent of consumers who search for a local business on a mobile device will either call or visit that business within 24 hours.
Why Google over another search engine such as Bing? Google is the leader in search engines. What they do is usually followed quickly by the others.
Quality* Content
If you’ve seen the 1967 classic “The Graduate,” you likely remember the one word of advice a neighbor gives an unsure Ben at a dinner party. Except when it comes to what Google wants from your website, it isn’t plastics but instead content.
Content is still king, but a caveat to the common marketing phrase is quality content is king. What is meant by quality? Relevancy. If your company specializes in water damage restoration for residential homes, it wouldn’t make sense to have several blog posts about budget vacation tips. A company like this would be well served to focus on information homeowners, landlords, renters, and more would be searching for if a frozen pipe burst or washing machine overflowed.
The more relevant and appropriate the information you can provide, the more website traffic will pick up. Build your content with words people would use in their searches. Essentially, think like your visitors. Don’t be afraid to spend a few minutes running your own search engine search thinking like visitors. This will give you an idea of what the top results are and how search engines are getting there.
Mobile Friendly?
By now you know how competitive it is to get your website and content to rank on page one or two in SERPs. So why wouldn’t you give yourself a boost with a website that isn’t mobile friendly? Though Google announced its mobile first approach nearly two years ago in April 2015, there are many websites who still haven’t made the switch.
Even if you think your website will or won’t be mobile friendly by Google standards, test it with their Mobile-Friendly Test tool. A scan of your website takes seconds and will say if the website passed. A scan of our Elevare website took less than 30 seconds and resulted in what we wanted.
Mobile-Friendly Test Tool by Google.
Rethink Your Use of Pop-Up Ads
Though there are hundreds of factors that Google uses to determine where it does or doesn’t rank a website in search results. With so much emphasis put on quality content, the search engine also considers your use of pop-up ads. But don’t panic if you use pop-ups as calls-to-action on specific pages. As long as Google can see you’re still providing relevant and quality content behind the ad, your ranking won’t plummet.
People don’t care for pop-up ads, even if you’re as discreet as possible. But statistics say otherwise when how effective pop-up and interstitial ads are.
Security or Nah?
Google is unveiling an important update for Chrome in version 56 and beyond. Starting in January 2017, a web page collecting passwords or credit card details will be marked unsecured unless the pages use HTTPS. Google has begun emailing web administrators with pages using HTTP credentials and collecting the information. The notice is the first part of a long-term plan by Google to mark any web page not using encrypted HTTP protocol.
The fix offered is relatively easy. Web administrators are encouraged to move pages which use the password and credit card fields to HTTPS. A ‘non-secure’ notice will pop-up for page visitors using Chrome for each unencrypted page. Google first announced the pending change in September 2016.
With mobile devices turning in 48 percent of organic search engine visits during the third quarter of 2016, the pundits are onto something about having a mobile friendly website.
Do You Want a Professional Google Friendly Website?
We have got you covered. Our custom website design team of experts will connect with you to determine your goals and vision. All our website designs are mobile responsive and mobile friendly. Our search engine optimization services will make sure your website gets found on all search engines across the internet. Visit our contact page and tell us how we can help or call now at 352-281-1134.
