Tag Archives: mobile website

Here’s What Google is Looking for in 2015

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In this article we take a look at some of the trends Google are looking for in 2015. Sticking to these trends is bound to help your SEO efforts, and avoiding them may even have some negative consequences.

google mobile

We’ll be talking about the importance of mobile friendly websites, changes being made to support local businesses and also some details about the necessity for content.

Mobile friendly websites

If you’ve been keeping an eye on changes to Google over the last few months, you’ll already know that Google has added the mobile penalty – this is a form of search engine penalization that occurs to any websites that do not have mobile optimized web pages.

The penalty will only apply to searches made from mobile devices, but this is still a significant amount of searches and potential traffic. As a result, it’s incredibly important to create a mobile optimized website this year if you haven’t already and this is one of the biggest things that Google will be looking for in 2015.

Google Mobile Algorithm update

Once you have a mobile friendly website your chance of being seen in mobile search results will increase- you’ll jump up the search rankings, landing higher than any websites that do not have the same level of mobile optimization as you do.

Local Searches – Potential for Local Businesses

Google is making it much easier for users to search for businesses in their area. Whether they’re looking for a particular restaurant, an accounting firm, a bakery, or absolutely anything else, Google will be showing more local results than ever before.

As a result, it’s incredibly important to get your local business on Google maps so that when people perform a search in the area they’ll be able to find your business. Google has named their local business searches to My Business and understanding the workings of it can be quite difficult.

google my business

With My Business you can list details about your business, put yourself on Google Maps and provide information about opening times. This kind of information is all you’ll need to get more attention via local searches, and it’s certainly becoming a very powerful way to bring in new customers. Amazingly, it can all be completely free to set up a My Business account on Google.

More & More Content

It’s become more apparent over the last few years that creating content for your website is one of the best ways to market that website. Content marketing is becoming more popular and is in fact being seen as a first choice for marketers all over the world now that older SEO techniques are proving to be less successful.

If you want to remain relevant online, it’s important that you provide regular content about your niche. Content can be press releases, blog posts or basic details about your business and your industry. The most important thing about content marketing is that it’s unique and it’s regular.

The length and quality of your content can play a part in the success of content marketing as well, but creating content regularly is arguably the most important thing you can do in 2015 to keep your business climbing the Google rankings.

Hopefully these pieces of information will help you to keep on top of improving of your online presence in 2015.

Looking for a new online marketing strategy? Contact us today for a FREE consultation with one of our experts. Click Here

PC, Mobile and Apps Compared in 2015

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In this article, we are going to be taking a look at the different areas desktop websites, mobile sites and apps can excel in, and how they all play a part of the picture that makes up a successful online business. In an ideal world, a business should be able to utilize all three, but sometimes a combination of the two is more achievable.

Where Desktop Excels

Despite all of the hype behind mobile, a desktop website still has a place in 2015. With that being said, businesses should certainly look at providing mobile optimization this year. With that in mind, desktop websites are useful for providing a good user experience to those who browse the web from a PC or laptop. Typically, desktop websites can provide a lot more information about your business. You can provide more details about your website and what you can offer to site visitors.

desktop website

Even though mobile adoption rates are through the roof right now, a lot of web traffic is still from the desktop, so it’s very important to not neglect a PC optimized experience for your customers. In fact, desktop should be treated as ‘main hub’ of sorts for your business. Your desktop should be a place where everything you need to provide to your potential customers is neatly stored.

Where Mobile Excels

Unfortunately, you aren’t always going to have a user connect to your website from a laptop or PC, and whilst desktop sites can be displayed on mobiles, they load slowly on mobile connections and they aren’t easy to navigate.

A mobile website has a number of benefits. Firstly, if a mobile user visits a page from their device, for the most part they will expect an experience that loads quickly and displays information clearly. You can use your mobile website to provide a fast loading experience that isn’t going to turn potential customers away.

easy mobile site

Mobile websites have other benefits too. By having a mobile optimized user experience your Google search rankings aren’t going to take a hit. A new change in Google’s search engine means that websites that are not optimized for mobile will be penalized, so simply having a mobile website can help your SEO efforts.

With more traffic sources being from mobile devices in 2015, it’s certainly beneficial to have a mobile website to support the current trends.

Where Apps Excel

Mobile apps are useful, but they only serve businesses in very specific cases. While you can make the argument that a business can provide an offline experience to their users, it’s rare that you’ll find a user needing to visit your website when offline, unless you provide users with some form of digital content.

mobile app advantages

Apps are great at giving users nice, streamlined access to digital content, but if you are trying to sell a product or service then apps are only as useful as a mobile website can be. Of course, if you have money for app development and you can see reasons why it’d be beneficial, then you may want to consider it, but otherwise it’s best to go for a mobile website first.

Summary

Your desktop should be treated as the main hub of your online presence, but mobile websites are also becoming very important. Whether you create a responsive website design or a separate mobile website, it’s necessary to have a mobile optimized experience in 2015. Mobile apps can be a useful asset, but mostly for digital content or other specific services

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The Google Mobile Penalty – What to Expect On April 21, 2015

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There’s no real way of knowing exactly what will happen with search rankings after a new Google update, but the upcoming Google mobile penalty is clearly going to have some drastic effects on non-mobile optimized web pages.

google mobile penalty

What is the Google Mobile Penalty?

Firstly, Google is set to make changes to the way it’s search engine ranks mobile optimized and non-mobile optimized websites on April 21st. At this point the whole internet could be a messy war zone. Fortunately, those who are keeping up with the times should not be affected. In fact, if you already have a mobile website you may even be affected positively by the upcoming Google update.

Here’s what Google has to say about their upcoming changes.

“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.”

This basically means that having a well optimized website for mobile devices is going to increase your search rankings. It’s no longer going to be all about content in 2015 – having a well performing website that runs on a multitude of devices is key to having your site rank higher in Google search results.

mobile search change

What to Expect

We should expect that the new Google mobile penalty will penalize those websites that still don’t support mobile devices properly. We aren’t just talking about owning a mobile version of your site. You will need to meet a certain set of criteria to ensure your website is as mobile friendly as possible and won’t be penalized as a result.

Information provided by Google themselves lists details about what Google will be looking for. While Google doesn’t blatantly say what Google Spider will be crawling for, it’s clear that they are looking for websites that offer certain features. Your mobile website should include readable text without any need to zoom. Your page should be resized to fit the device, so responsive web design would work wonders here.

Google has provided a guide listing some of the things you should take into consideration when designing a mobile website. They have also created a mobile-friendly test that can help you to determine whether your websites are mobile friendly or not.

mobile friendly test

If you do not have a mobile friendly website or a mobile website at all, you should expect to see a drastic change in your search engine ranking. We are not sure how much of an impact it will make, but when Google suggest that not having a mobile website will have a “significant impact” you should be prepared for the absolute destruction of your hard SEO work if you don’t own a mobile friendly website.

Our Suggestion

We really suggest looking at getting a mobile website done before the changes take place to avoid any penalties. We provide a mobile development service that can create you an optimized website that fits into the criteria needed to avoid the Google mobile penalty. You can learn more about our services and what Boost One Mobile is about here.

Click Here for a Mobile Preview

Is Mobile Web Important in 2015? – A Look at the Stats

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After the huge hype surrounding the recent explosion of smartphone usage over the last few years, it’s natural to be skeptical of whether the mobile web is still relevant or not. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the current health of the mobile web, and comparing it to more traditional desktop-based internet.

mobile search stats

By taking a look at search data from some of the biggest search engines, we can have an accurate representation of what devices are being used often.

Mobile Search Results

If we take a look at Google’s traffic in the second half of 2014, we can find that on average over 16 billion monthly hits were made to the website in the US across both desktop and PC. Interestingly, the divide between platforms was split quite evenly, with roughly 8.5 billion hits coming from the desktop, and 8 billion coming from mobile devices.

When we take a look at Bing’s search results, things are a little less stable, but there is a fairly similar story to tell, although the gap was larger. In most cases, around twice as many users connected to Bing via desktop. In November 2014, for example, 400 million connected via mobile, whilst 800 million connected via desktop.

mobile search

Bing’s traffic did fluctuate a lot, but for the most part mobile traffic accounted for enough traffic to match up against ~50% of desktop traffic each month.

This information shows that desktop is still being used more for searches, but mobile is not far behind at all.

Engagement Stats

Traffic isn’t enough to tell the whole story. Next, we’ll be looking at engagement stats for both Google and Bing. Interestingly, engagement for Google was much higher on desktop than it was on mobile. Desktop traffic ended up viewing pages for three times longer, and the bounce rate was also two times lower than mobile bounce rate.

With Bing, a larger percentage of mobile users are engaging for longer than Google, but desktop is still seeing slightly higher engagement rates, with an incremental improvement on visit duration and bounce rate.

mobile engagement

What we can gather from this information is that mobile users are typically already aware of what they are searching for – once they have completed the task they had at hand, they will switch off their displays. Desktop users on the other hand may spend more time browsing as they may feel less pressured for time whilst sitting at home.

Shopping

What both the search results and engagement rates are telling us so far is that mobile is still important, but desktop is equally, or even more important than mobile so far. However, one area where mobile is taking the lead is in shopping, perhaps the most important part for most businesses.

mobile commerce shopping

While mobile isn’t quite there yet, it is slowly becoming the shopping king. In 2014, the average monthly visits for Amazon was at 634 million for mobile devices and 658.5 million for desktop. Engagement rate for Amazon on desktop was interesting – time spent on desktop was around twice as long, but pages visited and bounce rate were similar.

Mobile Google Algorithm Update

In April 2015, it is expected that Google will roll out it’s latest algorithm update. On the 21st of April, this Google update is expected to have a serious affect on the mobile search results. Google is warning that websites that are not prepared for the update will drop in rankings in the mobile search results. This means that if your site is not optimized for mobile devices, you need to fix this and fast.If your site doesn’t look good on a mobile browser (as determined by the Google crawler), expect your mobile results to drop significantly.

mobile google algorithm update

The good news is that Google has a tool to allow you to quickly see if your site is displaying properly on mobile devices. You can check that out at: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

Summary

For other areas of the internet, it seems to be the same story – desktop still accounts for the majority of internet traffic, however mobile is close behind. Adoption rates for mobile is slowing down as more people become connected, but there seems to be a very healthy 50/50 split occurring between mobile and PC traffic.

So, is mobile web important in 2015? We’d definitely say so, but don’t get too carried away – desktop is just as important, if not more so than mobile, so it’s clear that your business should cater for both platforms.

We’d suggest checking out responsive website design if you are looking for the best method of entertaining both desktop and mobile users.

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Tips for Better Mobile Website Development

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Whether you’re hiring a developer to do it for you, or you are doing it yourself, there are certain things you should consider before starting mobile website development. Make sure you are clear about the kind of website you want before the development gets started, and be sure to integrate key features every mobile website needs.

Read below to get the best tips for better mobile website development.

Better Functionality

To ensure your mobile website works well on a mobile device, there are a few pitfalls you should avoid, and some tips you should take into consideration.

mobile website development

For example, it’s very important not to clutter your mobile website with too much embedded content, website information or rich content relating to your website. A well designed mobile website will have a few simple features right on the front page, and have the rest of the website put out of the way inside menus and other links. To avoid long loading times, badly optimized home pages and other dilemmas, the front page should be used for things your visitors are most likely going to be looking for, and that’s it. To see some of the best mobile site designs click here.

When working on mobile website development, creating a simple, yet intuitive home page will be a much better alternative to a feature-filled page filled with content because it is easy to read on a small device, loads quickly, and provides the visitor with the things they are most likely going to be looking for on the front page.

Better Appearance

Making things simple also helps with the appearance, and this is also another area to take into consideration when planning the website design.

If you have hired a business or a developer to work on your mobile site, be clear that you want a clean and easy-to-read appearance for your website, and don’t accept anything that doesn’t look intuitive and easy to use on a mobile handset.

flower mobile site

If you are developing a mobile website on your own, take a look at other professional mobile websites to get an idea about the simplicity behind each website. They are usually very plain and use simple block colours to add a bit of life to them, but with every good example of a mobile website, you will always see simple and often minimalistic designs.

Integrating more Features

While it is important to keep things simple, you’ll be leaving out missed opportunities if you don’t include some key features into your mobile website.

Because you are developing for mobile devices, you will want to provide content and appropriate links to content that most mobile users will make use of.

For example, you could include small buttons that link to social profiles such as Twitter or Facebook, or, if you have a physical location for your business, an integrated Google maps feature that gives directions straight to your business’ location by using the visitor’s GPS on their smartphone.

When working on mobile website project, make sure to take inspiration from other mobile websites and look at the features they’ve included. Any feature that can make things easier and quicker for your visitors is usually a good feature to use, and the quicker you can hand feed your visitors with the content they are looking for, the better. Need a mobile friendly version of your website? Contact us today.

3 Reasons Why a Mobile Website Could Be The Basis of Perpetual Potential

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You’ve probably heard a lot about how building a mobile presence can help to improve your business’ success in the 21st century, but if you are lucky enough, by providing access to your business via a mobile device you could be opening your business up to a whole new world of potential that you may not even be aware of.

This is certainly the case with businesses that rely on online interactions or purchases, but even if you’re a business that operates solely in the local area, upgrading to a mobile website could still be filled with benefits.

mobile customers

Getting your business involved with the mobile generation is one of the best ways you could improve connections with your customers, and if you get a mobile website up and running you open up lots of opportunities to retain your old customers, while reaching out to new ones.

Gaining New Customers

Mobile marketing is a strong tool to invest in, and it could potentially lead to a huge increase in revenue. If you provide a decently developed mobile website that mobile ads and marketing campaigns can be linked to, you are ensuring that any money spent on marketing isn’t wasted on customers who don’t have the time to wait for a desktop page to load, or the patience to find what they are looking for on a full-sized web page.

gaining new customers

Having an up-to-date mobile website can also give a great impression on any potential customers that may be searching online. You’ll never know how many customers pass up the offer to spend at your business for simple web formatting issues or lack of mobile support until you invest in a proper mobile website.

Encouraging Customers To Visit Again

There are now many apps and mobile services that allow businesses to set up easily accessible loyalty program schemes to encourage users to spend with your business repeatedly, and if you provide a mobile website that includes details of your loyalty scheme, customers will be able to quickly learn about the incentives they can earn by buying products or services directly from you instead of your competitors.

Once you have a mobile presence facilitated, you shouldn’t have much of an issue setting up a loyalty program via the various apps and mobile services available, and this can prove to be a very powerful way to improve your customer retention for years to come.

The Future of Mobile

Owning a mobile website for your business already has a large list of benefits, but there’s no true way of knowing how beneficial it could be for your business in the future. The mobile industry is growing at a ridiculous pace, and by creating an online mobile presence now, you’re getting ahead of the curve, and providing yourself the ability to benefit from the mobile industry as it continues to grow.

future of mobile

You can read more about how your business can benefit from mobile websites in our blog. If you’re looking for a developer to create a professionally-made mobile website that is tailored to your exact needs, you may want to check out our mobile web development services – learn more about what we do here.

The Benefits of a Mobile Website for Online Businesses and eCommerce Sites

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If your business solely operates in the mobile space, then there are many reasons to consider getting a mobile website. In 2014, smartphones are being used more than ever before, and each smartphone is a handheld portal into the web. However, standard desktop websites do not offer the same lightning fast experience as a mobile optimized web page does, and for this reason and many others, it’s incredibly important to cater for the percentage of your customers that do use the mobile web, because there’s a big chance that a large portion of them do. Below we’ve listed some of the biggest benefits to owning a mobile website for an online business or eCommerce site.

mobile website tools

Using Built-In Mobile Tools

If you sell products or services online, then you may be able to make use of the various mobile tools that each modern day smartphone comes packed with. For example, by grabbing a user’s GPS information you can quickly determine a user’s location, which in turn would mean the user would not need to enter in as much information about their home address and this can speed up the order process.

smooth mobile siteIf you have a call center or contact email, users will also be able to click on your email or phone number to immediately get into contact with you, instead of writing it down for future reference. Features like these are designed to make browsing the web faster, and the more seconds you cut off of the average experience on your mobile website, the better.

 An Overall Smoother Experience

If you stick to just a desktop website, smartphone users will still be able to access your website, but it may not display correctly, and customers may have trouble navigating your desktop website from a smartphone. Another issue is that desktop websites tend to have issues with loading on slower mobile connections, and while 4G and 3G is now widely available, some customers may only have access to a very slow GPRS connection.

A mobile website would trim down on all of the excess content, and provide only the material that is directly needed – this makes a fast loading, mobile optimized experience.

You may even consider choosing a mobile application over a mobile website, and whilst there are benefits for choosing this route, one large issue still arrives – the mobile industry is fragmented, and there are various different operating systems, and dozens of different display sizes, which means you’ll have to develop and optimize an app for multiple operating systems to reach your customer base. A mobile website will offer a unified portal that can be accessed from any device on any mobile operating system.

gain new customers

Expanding Your Customer Base

Many people have thrown away their old PCs and laptops and are only left with smartphones as their main connection to the internet. If you don’t provide a mobile optimized experience to these users, then you may be losing out on business. Customers that are limited to their mobile devices may look for businesses that have an easy to access mobile website instead of going to you if you only have a desktop site.

You may also find that owning a mobile website for your business may even bring in more new customers – not all businesses have adapted to the sudden increase in mobile handset usage worldwide, so if you do provide a nice mobile portal for those that are bound to their smartphones, customers may choose you over other less well adapted businesses.

Staying ahead of the curve will also help to make your brand stand out from others in the industry and paint a professional image of your business’ name.

Capturing Attention Quickly

We mentioned before that a mobile website will help to speed up loading times, but it will also make browsing and navigating your website a whole lot easier. If you hire a group of professionals to build you a mobile website, then you’ll end up with a website that provides customers with everything they could need as soon as the page loads.

The mobile web is limited when it comes to display size, but professional mobile website designers can ensure that your website looks attractive and remains as functional as possible to grab the attention of your visitors as soon as they hit your web page.

If the success of your business relies heavily on online connections with your customers, then it’s incredibly important to display yourself as best you can online, and one of the ways to do this is with a mobile website. Just like with a well decorated store front, your online business will look approachable and easy to deal with if you have a website that looks and works smoothly on whatever device a user can access the internet on.