Your top web marketing priority for 2014?
Optimisation for mobile
A few days ago, Matt Cutts of Google tweeted statistics which indicated that mobile web browsing had nearly doubled over the last year. In line with this he also made a firm recommendation that optimising for mobile should be a top priority for all webmasters in 2014.
Previous experience suggests that when Google make such recommendations, it is a good idea to act upon them. Where you follow Google’s guidelines correctly, your efforts will likely result in your website faring better in the search results as well as providing a better user experience.
When trying to determine why Google rewards optimisation of this nature, it is worthwhile remembering that high on their list of priorities is delivering the most appropriate search results for users. A large part of this is determined by how well your website is structured and whether it performs well on all types of devices whether, desk-top, tablet or mobile. With the mobile browsing element increasing so rapidly, it’s clear to see why Google is encouraging you to get your mobile assets in shape as soon as possible. In doing so, you will be in great shape to accomplish two important things:
- improving usability for your users
- improving your search ranking positions
Optimising your dental website for mobile viewing
The “de facto” standard for new websites is using the “responsive” design process. This technique presents different information to the user depending on the type of device they are using – you can read more about it in an earlier blog article here.
However, if you are not currently in the market for a new dental website you can still go some way to meeting Google’s recommendations by deploying a separate mobile website for your practice. Whilst this is now becoming increasingly outmoded, it is still a viable stop-gap until you are in a position where you can perform a full upgrade complete with the latest, recommended responsive design.
As a quick recap, responsive design has the following advantages over the old-style mobile websites:
- one website, not two => cheaper maintenance costs
- consistent presentation of information for your users
- better for SEO – one web page address and no unreliable re-directs to configure as is needed with a separate mobile site
- cheaper to deploy – a single dental website with a responsive design is cheaper than developing a desk-top and mobile variant
What other web properties need to be optimised for mobile?
Whilst your website should be the first item to address, you should also consider which other web assets need to be revisited to ensure that they present correctly for mobile users.
For example, your blog should also be updated to use a responsive template and your html email newsletter should also be modified.
The latter is particularly important given the increasing number of users who are accessing their mail via mobile devices.
How we can help
At Dental Media we were the first dedicated dental marketing agency to deploy mobile websites and the latest responsive designs. As such we can help you to update all of your web properties to the latest recommended standards, whether a full responsive re-design or a mobile site as a stop-gap measure until you are ready for a full upgrade. We will also be pleased to assist with updating your blog and email marketing for successful mobile deployment. Please call our team on 01332 672548 and we’ll be pleased to advise.