Google has always been the guide for internet marketers and web designers. Their search algorithms are carefully studied and its preferred criteria is integrated into the internet marketing strategy and professional Lloydminster website design in order to get high marks from Google and achieve a higher search ranking. The criteria keeps changing every now and then, and people have to be aware of this and adjust their strategy accordingly.

Lately, there has been an added emphasis on making a responsive web design, or a website that adjusts to smaller screens such as that of a smartphone or a tablet. This is due to the fact that more and more people are relying heavily on their mobile devices and are using it as a primary way of browsing the web, even more so than their computers.

Google is well aware of this and according to ArsTechnica, “The company is now judging how "mobile-friendly" a site is and is using that metric to weigh search results served to mobile devices.” Similar changes have been made in the past, and it’s obvious that Google is pushing for web developers to start building mobile-friendly sites. This means that sites with mobile-friendly pages are going to get a boost in rankings in mobile search results, and this is more important than ever thanks to the increased use of mobile phones for browsing the Internet.

The simplest form of a responsive web design is that it adjusts to fit the screen of the device that it is accessed from. One way this is commonly done is by having fluid grid layouts that are designed for computers and fixed width layouts made for mobile devices. Images need to be considered as well, and these should resize accordingly.

The recent change to Google’s algorithm might only affect mobile search results, but mobile is becoming a norm nowadays. Almost half of all traffic from Google has come from mobile devices, and in November, 2014, mobile traffic actually surpassed desktop traffic, indicating that the shift to mobile devices may be coming sooner rather than later.

Those who do not yet have a mobile-responsive design should get in touch with a company with web design in Lloydminster such as Hotline Web Design. Such companies have been in the web design and internet marketing industry for several years and know how to get the job done.

Sources:

Google champions responsive Web design in page ranking update, ArsTechnica, April 30, 2015