Do you need to check your web site is Mobile Friendly? But have no way of knowing how to check or what this even means?
You were probably convinced that last time you had your website designed, you would be set for life. Now you are searching for the best mobile friendly checker. However you now have customers saying your web site looks weird on there mobile phone. You may have found your rankings in Google have all gone down in the last few years.
You are in the right place. We know that a website that isn’t truly mobile friendly will cause a loss of business in several ways. Firstly back in 2015 Google released an algorithm that started the ball rolling on penalising sites that aren’t considered mobile friendly. Secondly browsers approved standards that made it easier for designers to scale websites using HTML and CSS. Finally anything from 40 to 75% of your customers are using mobile and tablets to find you, unlike the desktop generation 10 years ago.So what you need is a Mobile Friendly Checker and a person you can ask to fix any issues you find….Zanet Design at Your Service!
The Best 3 Mobile Friendly Website Testers
Below we look at the best 3 mobile-friendly checkers on the web. We discovered one that you may of missed and if you are a non-techie you are going to love it. Firstly I review how useful they are for a non-techie. Secondly I will rate each one on how easy they are to use. Finally I will provide some comments on what the quick fixes and issues are about and how I can help if you need an expert to lend a helping hand.
Google mobile friendly test
Lets Get started with the easiest checker from Google . It scores you on how well your website is optimised. Its a really simple interface as you would expect from Google
Name: Mobile Friendly Test
URL: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
Benefits: Can test URL or Code
Simplicity : 8/10
Fixes For Non Techy : 6/10
The Google mobile friendly website tester is probably the best and easiest to use. Its aimed at business owners that need to know where they stand. It aims at simplifying the results and provided a wealth of guidelines to follow to fix each issue. If you are web savvy, you will probably find the information reasonably easy to follow. If you have a lot of red issues, you are probably going to need to look at having a revised website, or even a new website build.
How the checker should look if your compatible
How the checker could look if your Website is not mobile friendly
Bing mobile friendly tester
It’s easy to dismiss everything other than Google checkers on the web, as Google provides a chunk of traffic. Ultimately Google doesn’t own your visitors. If history is anything to go by the large companies can fall quickly. I utter Netscape, AltaVista, Yahoo, all made a name for themselves and yet have pretty much diminished. Now we see the rise of DuckDuckGo. So the point? Don’t totally rule out Bing just yet. The Bing checker may be a useful test to give you extra clarity when fixing any compatibility issues.
Name: Mobile Friendliness Test Tool
URL: https://www.bing.com/webmaster/tools/mobile-friendliness
Benefits: Can only test URL
Simplicity : 7/10
Fixes For Non Techy : 4/10
The Bing checker feels like its been bolted on as a necessity to cover off Googles version. It works OK from the outset.The analysis gives a similar result to Google. Where it is disappointing is it just lacks the front end slickness of Googles tools. Above all, it doesn’t provide detailed fixes for a non-techie. Not good. Bing provided one general link to some possible fixes.The page was vague and wasn’t related to the URL test. All you got was an article to read. It gives some direction as to what the fails mean. But I don’t see that as a way to help business owners who need some hand holding as to what they can do to resolve the issues.
How the Bing Mobile test should look if your mobile friendly
How the Bing checker looks if your Website isn’t mobile friendly
MobiReady mobile friendly test
If you want a real visual treat, then you may want to try this. In many ways I think this tool is the best way for beginers to test thir site. It presents it in a way that is appealing. The icons and colours are intuitive. mobiReady is free. It claims to use the industry best practices and standards.Lets take a look
Name: Mobi Ready
URL: https://ready.mobi/
Benefits: Can test URL only (in beta)
Simplicity : 9/10
Fixes For Non Techy : 9/10
MobiReady is still in beta. So it looks like they want to be the market leader on mobile testing tools. What the mobile checker did so well is give visuals not just for one mobile but several screen sizes. You felt like the visuals gave a much clearer understanding, something words cant do. It uses icons and snippets to explain exactly what going on. Impressive in many senses.The simplistic breakdown is between 4 areas. HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Images, all in colour coded charts.
How MobiReady checker looks if your mobile friendly
When google mobile friendly test have errors, you are given some clues how to fix it. When Bing is involved you are on your own. MobieReady blows them away. It shows you where your code is, how important it is and the impact of it on your web site. Then above all it gives you the fix. It is stunningly beautiful in every where. I actually discovered it while researching this article and trying to find a way of helping some of my clients. Its impressive in every way and gets my full recommendation
In Conclusion
With our review and ratings taken into account, the verdict is MobiReady wins for Non-Techies. It seems to present the test in a way that will appeal to most concerned web managers. But it goes further, by supplying actual recommendations and bespoke code to help a person who is overwhelmed by this process to feel confident in what they are doing. Great job to the MobiReady guys and if this is a free Beta version we cant wait to see it when its fully released.
1st Place
Mobi Ready
Score: 18/20
2nd Place
Google Mobile friendly Test
Score: 14/20
3rd Place
Bing Mobile Friendliness Tool
Score: 11/20
Why Google Went Mobile Friendly
It was a large change for all web site owners when Google announced the change in direction. The only answer was to accept that from this point on new websites would be designed for mobiles as the priority. Then other larger devices like desktops and laptops would follow. The absolute opposite to the way websites up to that point had been created. So that was a big jump in design technique.
Google states its critical for a business if you rely on online customers. Smartphone traffic exceeds desktop traffic in the majority of countries. So getting this fixed today is an investment into the future of your business. You could say a Mobile Friendly Website design is about the customer and not about the web site owner. Its a bit like the age old proverb “The Customer is always right”
History of Google and Mobile testing back in 2015
In conclusion I wrote about this subject back in 2015. Although the tests above are much more useful and current, I wanted to leave the article on this page below.
The huge change to how Google will rank your web site from 21st April 2015. But unusually Google has let webmasters know before hand. Normally they make the change to an algorithm without telling you and suddenly you find your site losing traffic as you try and work out what has just happened.
Why are Google making such a massive change to how your site is ranked? Google explains, “The aim is to put customers first”.
Understandably with almost 50% of web visitors using mobiles or other small screen devices, Google wants web sites to accommodate mobile visitors by making there web site “Mobile Friendly”.
“Google will begin prioritizing mobile-friendly sites because that’s what users have grown to expect” – Maile Ohye, developer programs tech lead for Google.
Do not despair as there a couple of simple steps to follow below to confirm you are ready for the Google update.
Follow our simple guide for peace of mind
- Check your website is mobile-friendly using the Google Webmaster Tool.
- If it is not mobile-friendly then contact us now and let us fix it.
Remember you are either mobile-friendly or not, there are no degrees of mobile-friendliness in this Google algorithm.