Posted by Carlos Munoa, Principal, Ecommerce Marketing, NetSuite
If the need for a responsive ecommerce website wasn’t already abundantly clear to any businesses with a website, Google’s announcement last week that it would include mobilefriendliness of websites as a ranking signal should put to rest any reservations about adopting responsive web design. In fact, it’s now an imperative for any business that hopes to survive online.
According to Google’s announcement, searches from mobile devices in all languages worldwide will be affected starting April 21. Google offers a guideto mobile-friendly sites and a Mobile-Friendly Test to help webmasters determine how well their sites perform. Additionally, starting last week, Google said it will begin to use information from indexed apps as a factor in ranking for signed-in users who have the app installed. That means content from indexed apps may surface more easily in search results. Google explains how to conduct app indexing in its step-by-step guide.
Indeed, businesses that are still serving up websites that are not mobile friendly are already losing out on the massive shift toward mobile traffic. Internet monitoring company comScore issued a report last June indicating that smartphone and tablets now account for 60 percent of online traffic.
With more traffic shifting to mobile and Google now rewarding mobile-friendly websites, businesses that neglect to provide a mobile-friendly website look destined to be left behind the same way that those who neglected to develop a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy in ecommerce. Mobile users will not only have a difficult time using websites that aren’t mobile-friendly, now they’re even less likely to find it.
The easiest and most cost effective approach is to build a website using responsive web design, meaning the pages automatically adjust screen sizes and capabilities to different devices – computers, mobile phones or tablets. That means that businesses running on an ecommerce platform with responsive web design built in are already well prepared for this latest change by Google.
Businesses such as Saddleback Leather, PAG Leisurewear and Christian Art Gifts are running mobile-optimized sites powered by NetSuite SuiteCommerce. The built-in responsive web design capabilities included in SuiteCommerce allows merchants to build device-optimized online experiences across all devices. To learn more about SuiteCommerce, visit http://www.suitecommerce.com
Image credit - http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00833/e11cac92-976d-11e4-_833740c.jpg
