The era of mobilegeddon. How to conduct a mobility audit for your website?

With the surge of mobile traffic and Google’s recent update to its search algorithm, mobile friendliness has become a crucial part of your website’s SEO strategy. So how do you figure out if your site passes the mobile test? This blog will tell you how to conduct an audit to determine where you currently stand, as well as offer tips on how to improve your site’s usability.

Introducing mobilegeddon

Mobilegeddon refers to the impending changes that will affect mobile search engine rankings on Google, meaning that in order to maintain your search ranking, it’s time for you and your business’s website to go mobile. In the past few years, mobile devices have become commonplace and we’ve seen an increase in use of mobile apps. It’s important that your website is optimized for mobile devices or else you risk losing customers.

Currently, 66% of all Internet traffic is from mobile devices. This trend is only continuing to grow with every passing year. In 2022, it’s estimated that 77% of all internet traffic will be from mobile devices. So what does this mean? Well if you’re not catering your website for mobile use yet, you might be losing potential readers or customers.

Mobile devices and its importance for Google

The importance of mobile devices in Google’s algorithm is growing steadily. Clicks from smartphones are now a significant factor and the signals used for this ranking vary by phone, according to the head of web spam at Google. Because most websites haven’t been designed responsively, there are millions of searches taking place daily on mobile that end up with desktop sites instead of mobile ones.

Mobile-First Index

This update of algorithm means mobile-friendly websites will likely see higher rankings than those that are not deemed mobile-friendly. As always, it is important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in search engine optimization and continue optimizing your website so you can rank high on Google’s results pages. The sooner you start, the better off you will be.

So… what is a mobility audit?

A mobility audit is the process of reviewing your current website and search marketing tactics in order to make sure that they are mobile-friendly. It’s so important that your site be user-friendly on all platforms, with navigation options customized for different viewing habits and gestures.

If you’re not mobile-friendly, it doesn’t matter how good your website is, Google will rank you lower. In order to be on the safe side, conduct a mobility audit of your site. It’s easy and there are many tools out there that will help you in this process.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

All websites should be built with the mobile audience in mind. The total number of visits to your website from mobile devices is one key performance indicator that will give you an idea of how successful your site is across platforms. It is important to check this metric regularly and keep it in mind when designing or optimizing your site. Other KPIs include bounce rate, conversion rate, time on site, and pages per visit. They all vary depending on what type of website you have, but are always worth looking at.

What should you be auditing?

Speed loading

While speed loading is important for all devices, it’s more critical on mobile devices. If people have a poor experience with your site and can’t navigate the pages easily, they’ll leave before they’ve found what they need. A mobile audit will help you identify any issues that could be negatively impacting load time. You may also want to consider checking out Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool which helps you identify opportunities for improving your website’s performance.

Responsiveness

It’s estimated that more than half of the world’s population now accesses the internet using mobile devices. To make sure your website is accessible, check your site on the following. Is there a responsive design? Does it work with smartphones, tablets and desktop computers? Does the content change depending on what device you’re viewing it from? You can use tools like Google Chrome or Ghostlab to test your website’s responsiveness.

Site structure

With mobile devices on the rise, it’s important that you not only make your website mobile-friendly, but also design it with mobile users in mind. Navigating a site is much different than using a phone. These days, smartphones and tablets reign supreme. For example, most phones these days use swipe navigation as opposed to scrolling vertically or horizontally – meaning that their screens are often too small for traditional navigation methods.

Text size

It is important to note that font size on mobile devices is often smaller and may take up more room than expected. This can result in your website not being displayed properly or it might force the user to scroll horizontally. Use caution when choosing fonts, colors, and other elements of your design. It’s also critical that you consider the viewing angle of mobile devices while planning your site design.

Checking the size of your text is an easy step. It’s usually under the mobile section of your website, or if you’re using WordPress, it should be under Appearance->Mobile->Settings. Change the text size to something readable on mobile devices, then switch between devices and try different browsers and tablets (Android, iPhone).

Multimedia

As you conduct your mobility audit, be sure to consider multimedia. It’s not just about video and still images; your website should also have graphics, audio and even social media buttons. To accommodate the growing variety of devices on the market and mobile browsing habits. Think about whether it is worth including videos or other multimedia content. You might want to include high-quality photographs in order to make it easier for users with slower connections or low bandwidth plans.

When do you need an app?

Do you have or can you acquire the resources to create and maintain an app? Then that’s the better route. Apps allow users to perform specific tasks, making them more versatile than mobile websites. In other words, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, but you do want it to be accessed on smartphones and tablets as well as desktop computers, then an app is what you need.

Final thoughts

Conducting a mobility audit is an extremely time-consuming and involved process, but it is also an important task in the mobile development space. Some of the factors you should consider are how your website will be accessed, how much bandwidth will be available, and how quickly content needs to load as well as what kind of information your website provides and its content structure. Once you have determined these factors, this steps t can help optimize your site for mobile use.