Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, or it'll hurt your Search Engine rankings.

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, or it’ll hurt your Search Engine rankings.

It’s more important than ever to have a web site that is mobile friendly.

Smart phone use is on the rise and more and more people are browsing the web from them as well as from other mobile devices. In fact, mobile users surpassed desktop users about two years ago, according to smartinsights.com and the number has climbed steadily since then.

Mobile-friendly websites are also favored in search engine rankings—in part for that very reason. Google indicated that it made the change to ensure that people searching the web on their mobile devices will be able to find the content they’re looking for in a way that they can use it.

So how can you tell if your site is mobile-friendly? Google has also supplied an easy test.

To make sure your site is mobile friendly, make sure:

Your text is easy to read without zooming or tapping. You want your customers to be able to see what’s on your site with minimal difficulty.

Any buttons or links are easy to see and well-spaced. Nothing is more irritating for your mobile customers than a tiny ‘click here’ button or two links that are so close together you have a tough time tapping the right one.

Your site doesn’t feature any unplayable content. Flash content, some video and audio files will not play on mobile devices, so you shouldn’t include those on your mobile site.

Your text fits on a mobile screen. Your customers should be able to read it without scrolling from side to side (vertical scrolling is acceptable, of course, because that’s how our mobile-age brains are conditioned).

These guidelines apply to all pages on your site—not just your landing page. Need more help? You can find it here.