By Tom White*
According to the website presence study conducted by TrustedCleaner in 2014 only 14 percent of cleaning companies currently have a mobile optimised website. This statistic sees the cleaning industry being left behind in the online world. But an opportunity to boost your company’s Google ranking has become available.
Google recently announced it is changing its ranking algorithm to help mobile friendly websites rank higher in its search results. This change will come in to effect on 21 April, and will affect results worldwide.
Google wants to reward websites that provide a great experience for their users, and this recent announcement is an aggressive move to encourage companies to create mobile friendly websites.
This announcement represents a significant opportunity for the small percentage cleaning companies who already have a mobile friendly website, and those who are able to make the required changes before the April deadline.
Companies that are not able to meet the deadline can still benefit from the ranking boost in the future as the update will be a continuous, rolling process.
Ensuring your website displays well on all types of mobile devices (mobile phones and tablets) is now an important part of your SEO strategy, but should also be considered essential for companies who want take advantage of the growing number of customers who are using the internet to research, shortlist and select cleaning companies online.
This year, for the first time, mobile internet use outpaced desktop use, and the trend is set to continue.
Is your website mobile-friendly? This free tool will check your existing website and provide a report of any issues which need addressing.
If the tests highlights any issues with your current website there is still time to make the required changes. There are two types of mobile websites:
Dedicated mobile website: This is a separate website (e.g. m.yourwebsite.com) which only appears when people are browsing on a mobile device, and is usually a stripped down version of your main site.
Responsive website design: Your main website automatically re-sizes to fit the device the visitor is using.
A responsive website is the preferred option as it only requires you to maintain one website, it allows for a richer user experience, and there are no ongoing fees (Google has also hinted they prefer responsive websites), however it does require either a re-design and/or re-coding of your existing website.
A separate mobile website on the other hand can be created and implemented very quickly using one of the many mobile website building tools on the market (most of these cost less than $10 per month) or by outsourcing to a specialised mobile web designer.
*Tom White is founder of TrustedCleaner, www.trustedcleaner.com.au