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Mobile usability is an important and often explored subject here on the Think Profits blog. Mobile search is ever on the rise with marketers predicting that 2015 is the year that we will see mobile search surpass desktop.

This move to mobile will have huge implications for companies who haven’t redesigned their website in years, especially as Google continues to tweak their algorithms with focus on improving user experience for mobile search.

In their most recent attempt to improve user experience, Google has released a new mobile tag that indicates whether or not a site is mobile-friendly when users perform a search using their phone or tablet. This means if your site is not responsive, but your competitor’s is, a user searching on a phone or tablet is likely going to click on the listing that indicates a mobile-friendly site.

Not only will this new tag make it clear to users whether a site is going to be worthwhile visiting on their device, it will also have an effect on your site’s SEO rankings. We will start to see sites tagged as mobile-friendly begin to move up the ladder and leave older, outdated sites behind.

In addition to Google’s mobile-friendly tag, which shines light on websites that provide a positive user experience, Google is also starting to send warnings to websites that do not meet mobile requirements.

How do You Measure Mobile Friendliness?

There are a number of criteria that your site must meet in order to satisfy Google’s mobile standards. Specifically, Google measures a site’s responsive ability based on elements like readability of text, how it fits and adapts to screen size and if navigation buttons are designed to suit finger-friendly scrolling.

What to Do if Your Site Doesn’t Make the Grade

One easy way to test your site and determine whether it meets the criteria is by using Google’s own Mobile-Friendly Test. Simply enter your website’s URL and Google will analyze your site in seconds.

If your site doesn’t meet the necessary requirements to give it that mobile-friendly tag, you might want to start thinking about engaging a mobile redesign. Think Profits specializes in responsive design, and can help you from project start to finish.

If you’re interested in engaging our internet marketing services, get in touch with one of our experts.

Call 1.877.597.7888 toll free, or 1.604.638.1188 in Vancouver.