Dealing with the impending Google mobile compliance update - is bMobilized any good as a temporary measure?
-
We've been caught a bit off guard with the upcoming Google mobile compliance issue and received the warnings in webmasters about fixing mobile usability issues.
It will still be some time before we can have the site re-coded as responsive. I have stumbled upon a converter tool (which turns any site into one that's mobile friendly) called bMobilized, which essentially turns your site into one that's mobile friendly.
Have you used bMobilized? Is it a safe idea to use this service temporarily until our new responsive site is ready in a few months? Do you have any suggestions for temporarily getting around the mobile compliance issue while our new responsive site is being built?
Thanks
-
I should clarify, I'm not saying don't make a stripped down mobile version, in fact I agree it may be a great idea. I also think setting it up to meet the standards as outlined in the post is the best way to do it. I think it is a better idea than using a conversion to mobile service, if you have to make a choice. Basically, the sooner you can meet the mobile standards the better! At the same time, if it is going to cause you to make a bad decision/put out a product that isn't finished or potentially hinder the overall progress of your website, then I think it isn't worth the rush. As pointed out below, take your top pages and really hit those hard, make sure those are up to par and move on from there.
I think the hesitance you are reading in my post is the importance of "measure twice cut once in" and taking every single possible outcome into account.
-
I disagree with Hashtag here; I think it's worth making a stripped down mobile version of your site, especially if you focus on the pages that bring in the most mobile traffic for you. Going fully responsive is a great end goal, but the buzz in SEO communities is that this will have a significant impact.
Just make sure that you set things up properly, since separate mobile sites can be tricky!
-
Good Morning!
Is your old website in WordPress? If you are considering building a new website in WordPress, I PERSONALLY would just as soon start building a responsive theme. Or even put a responsive child theme on individual pages to hold its place until you have something ready.
We don't totally know how much any of these algo updates from Google impact us until after the fact. Everything is speculation until it actually launches, Hindsight is 20/20. You will also see impact from making changes to your layout, website organization, etc.
Making your website responsive means the least amount of change overall. Its very hard to answer and give suggestions on what to do with another persons website, especially without having looked at the site at all. There are so many things to take into account, such as timeline for a complete overhaul, the impact of a incomplete mobile site on sales etc.
-
Thanks for the great reply.
Mobile conversions account for about 20% - which translates to some significant business for us.
Might it be worth building a mobile site in Word Press (a stripped down version of the desktop site) to utilise in the meantime? Would it be negative to indexing/rankings if we were to have an interim Mobile site live until the responsive site is ready.
-
Hustler has a very good point about your traffic sources. I spent the last 2 months converting my site as a precautionary measure and Im ready. My advice would be to stay away from quick fixes. Start your conversion on high traffic pages and slowly work your way through to the lower end pages.
-
I agree 100% with Hustler. Take the time to build a responsive website if you can afford to and your mobile traffic/conversions are already pretty low.
In the future, Google may further split rankings so you may as well have a solution in place that will perform on all three mediums just in case. ( Desktop, Mobile, Tablet )
-
So, assuming you have done the necessary research before hand, for example this Moz article on mobile Google makes it pretty clear that it is not going to hurt your desktop rankings, so before any panic sets in, I sincerely believe in checking the data and making sure its worth the investment.
For example if only 2% of your traffic is coming from mobile, and there don't seems to be many conversions from that, I personally would take my time finding the perfect solution, and hold out until everything could be made responsive.
Also based on this website you sent, I fear it will end up being a lot more work than it appears. I HAVE NEVER USED IT, but based on my 10+ years in graphics/web design, conversion tools generally are not as effective as they appear, although some work very well.
In conclusion, look at your mobile traffic and conversions. Look at what people are using mobile for, are they simply getting a phone number? Then a Google + Business Page can help serve the same purpose while you start the new site. Are they making purchases? Then maybe it would be worth looking into the solution they sent simply to keep revenue. If mobile isn't incredibly influential to your overall web presence, I would just hold out and do it right. Measure twice, cut once.
Hope this helps!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How does Google look at strings added to a URL
For example: http://localhost:3000/en-US/app/a-knsmtrhqrqs/personal where knsmtrhqrqs is a string Can Google tell this is a string and what's their policy? Will it hurt rankings? Thank you.
Web Design | | RoxBrock0 -
Google result showing old Meta Title / Description even though page view source shows new info.
Hey guys! I'm struggling with why Google is ignoring my Meta Title / Description. I made a pretty drastic change to both about a week ago and on the results it hasn't changed. I'm on first page with several keywords and I think this weird caching is hurting me on where I'm at on the page. Thoughts / Ideas?
Web Design | | curtis_williams0 -
Responsive design or mobile website for SEO
Because domains with a mobile version have better rankings in Google then domains with only a deskop version we're considering a mobile website. My web developer says that a m.domain.com is duplicated with the domain.com, and he recommends a responsive design. What is better for SEO positions in mobiles devices. A m.domain mobile website or a responsive design. What are influential factors?
Web Design | | remkoallertz0 -
Sitemap Update Frequency?
Hello, My question today is regarding sitemaps. I'm often confused by this and because I am a bit obsessive I believe I may be giving myself more work than needed.. Basically my question is, do I need to update and/or re-generate my sitemap every time I make a change to the site? I mean, I must have to if I add a page, correct? And so in Google's Webmaster Tools, do I just delete the current sitemap and re-upload a new one for Google to crawl? Is it possible to overdo this? Any sitemap suggestions would be fantastic. I feel like there's been a few weeks where I've updated the sitemap daily and re-submitted it and I worry that might be hurting my site. Thanks!
Web Design | | jesse-landry0 -
Changing Links that Show Up when I Google Brand (Site) Name
Hi SEOmoz Community, A quick question for you all. I've added an attachment for reference. When I google my brand name, say for example, Applied StemCell, I see six links as well below the description. Oddly though, these links seem to be chosen at random, or at least I'm not sure how Google decides on them. When I click on one of the links that is the company's name, Applied StemCell it brings me to a PDF document! Is there any way I can choose which ones to display there? Thanks! OF2oVVN.png
Web Design | | swzhai0 -
Does Google take email server IP blacklists into account?
This is just a hypothetical, but would Google use information from email server blacklists to determine the quality of a website? The reason is that we're planning to code in an e-mail queuing system for our next CMS, and we would put SPF and DKIM in place. We wouldn't be sending any bulk e-mails (we use Constant Contact for this), but we might be sending personalised follow up e-mails, unpaid order emails and that sort of thing. There's no reason to think we'll be blacklisted, but from experience I know that these email blacklist directories quite often give false positives when an e-mail server is incorrectly configured. So the risk is that we might get blacklisted by mistake when we start using this new feature. Would Google take this into account as part of the algorithm? And if so, would the damage be permanent? (I.e. does getting removed from the blacklist mean Google will stop thinking we're a low quality / spammy site)
Web Design | | OptiBacUK0 -
How do you deal with comment spam: wordpress?
I have akismet installed on my Wordpress blog, and it does a great job of filtering the spam comments, but for some reason my site (and server) gets slammed by the amount of spam comments akismet blocks. If I check my spam folder there will be over 100 spam comments in an hour. (which in turn puts a load on my server.) Does anyone have any thoughts on how to put a stop to this? (Or at least slow it down?) I know I could use a captcha, but I really don't want to put any barriers on people commenting and I don't even like using those captcha's myself. Thoughts? By the way, does anyone know how spam like this works? This has been going on for sometime now. Are spammers just using automated software to do this?
Web Design | | NoahsDad0 -
Alternatives to Wordpress for updating content of a static html site
I have a static html site which I cannot update myself. What solutions/ programs would you recommend for gaining the ability to update it myself? I'm reluctant to switch to WordPress because the sites that use any CMS that are hosted by my web hosting company get routinely hacked. Thank you!
Web Design | | translate0