Alan Stainer

Tech head through and through.

Google Search results will now tell you if a site is not compatible with your device

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Google Search results will now tell you if a site is not compatible with your device

If your site is not optimised for all devices, you may be losing out.

h/t Mat Bennett and Malcolm Oakley 

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Comments

  1. Boz Bundalo says

    If your site is not optimized for mobile you are not losing anything because almost nobody uses mobile web and it’s usage is shrinking every month.. If you don’t have an app and engage directly with your users and if your website on desktop doesn’t work on all browsers that Flash still provides (among a plethora of other features that HTML5 just doesn’t do or does terribly), THEN you are losing out.

  2. Alan Stainer says

    Boz Bundalo I have to disagree with you.

    If you do a Google search (or any search) from a mobile device, you are returned results for websites, not apps. People will land on your website. They will not have an app unless you have already built up a relationship with that person and they have enough trust in you and your brand to purposely download and install that app.

    If your site is not optimised for mobile and someone lands on your site with a mobile device… well. You will be losing out. Period. Whether or not usage is shrinking.

    Speaking of which, have you got a link to any studies that show this? I thought mobile web usage was on the increase.

  3. Boz Bundalo says

    The point I was making is that mobile web is dead and it’s just a matter of time. The new paradigm is native applications with web services/cloud. If you are still thinking it terms of the web on mobile you are just going against the future.

    And Google will promote an app over web search if there is an app. So if you don’t have an app and can connect directly with users and establish a direct long term relationship that web simply doesn’t provide, you are going the wrong way.

    And sure, here are some stats for you

    http://www.flurry.com/bid/109749/Apps-Solidify-Leadership-Six-Years-into-the-Mobile-Revolution#.U8hFZI1dXvY

  4. Alan Stainer says

    Boz Bundalo that is based on this report by Flurry.

    http://www.flurry.com/bid/109749/Apps-Solidify-Leadership-Six-Years-into-the-Mobile-Revolution#.U8hF0nWx3UY

    Reading the report it mentions a ton of percentages, but no hard figures. Percentages have to be taken with a pinch of salt, as they are so easily given spin. For instance, 20% of mobile usage was web traffic back in 2013. That is fine if that 20% was 50 million actual people, that is still a lot. It drops to 14% in 2014. Again, that is fine. That 14% could be 100 million actual people now, which would in fact be an increase!