With the recent release of Google’s Nexus One phone, the company also mentioned that their line of mobile devices is just getting started. This shows one of the most important trends happening on the Web, and website owners need to take notice if they haven’t already.
To say mobile search is the wave of the future is incorrect; mobile search is the wave of the now. The number of mobile searches went up roughly 500 percent in the last year, and it isn’t going to slow down any time soon. Mobile search is here to stay, and if you have a website that isn’t adapting to the changes yet, it’s time for some modifications.
Google’s motto for their new device is “Web meets phone.” This motto is true for more than just the Nexus One, almost any new phone that comes out is going to be able to use the Web. If a site is still designed to be exclusively viewed on a computer monitor, it’s not going to be as successful as a site that meets the needs of those looking on their phones.
Phones are getting more sophisticated and they can now see websites in the same format a computer would display them in, but there’s still a few things to keep in mind to make sure your site works properly on phones.
One of the most important things to do is make sure your site loads quickly. Eliminate all unnecessary bytes to optimize your site for speed. This will allow your site to load faster on phones, which usually have slower Internet speeds than computers. In addition to site speed being useful when optimizing your site for mobile devices, Google has also hinted that speed is going to become a more important ranking factor. Perhaps Google is giving more weight to site speed, because so many sites are now viewed on phones.
Also make sure to get rid of any unnecessary apps and formats that might not show up correctly on a mobile device. Flash is starting to work on some phones, but most aren’t there yet and might not be for some time.
All it takes is a couple steps to make sure things run well when viewed on today’s mobile devices, and if you don’t make sure your website works well, you might be missing out on nice chunk of business.
