Have you looked at your web site on your phone lately, or ever? If not, do it now! How does it look? Can you read the text? Can you access all of the content? Does it load quickly?

If you answered no to any of the these questions, it is time to put making your web site mobile friendly at the top of your to do list. People are consuming more and more content on their phones. Assuming that they are only checking email or Facebook represents outdated thinking.

Google announced in October that in the near future they would be switching their primary index from desktop to mobile. In practical terms, this means that they will be looking at mobile versions of sites and indexing them rather than the desktop or “regular” version of the site.

Now is the time to make sure your site is fully accessible on mobile devices. Today’s web building technology makes creating responsive web sites easier than ever. If you’re not sure how to make your site function smoothly on phones, ask your web designer. If they don’t know, it is worth finding one who does.

What exactly does “mobile friendly” mean for a web site?

• It should load quickly – ideally in 5 seconds or less (Google says sites should target for 2 seconds or less, but that is almost impossible to achieve).
• It should be easy to use on a touch screen – responsive designs are great for this, because they change the navigation to be easier to use on a phone.
• Your and functionalities need to work easily on a phone – restaurants need menus that are not PDFs, product search functions need to work on a phone, etc.
• Forms should be reasonable – look at your forms on a phone and make sure that they are easy to complete and are not overwhelming on the smaller screen.

Know How Your Site Is Performing

Running some type of analytics on your web site is essential, especially when you can use Google Analytics for free! With Google Analytics on your site, you can see your traffic statistics, but you can also see how your site is being used by people on different devices. You can actually see if people leave your site while on mobile devices versus on computers!

Bottom line? Assume your site will be viewed on a mobile device more often than not and make sure that experience is a good one for your visitors!

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Julie Friedman Bacchini is the president of Neptune Moon LLC, a full-service internet marketing and web design firm. She and her blog are regularly included in many top search marketing influencer lists. Julie has presented on topics such as web site experience, local search visibility and paid search both locally and at national industry conferences, including SMX East and PPC Hero. You can find Julie on Twitter @NeptuneMoon or reach her via email at info@neptunemoon.com or telephone at 484-341-8181.