{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "Mobilegeddon: Government Edition |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Mobilegeddon: Government Edition",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/04/15/mobilegeddon-government-edition/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Mobilegeddon: Government Edition","summary" : "Much is being said and written about the coming Mobilegeddon/Mopocalypse on April 21st—the day Google’s ranking algorithm will begin boosting results for mobile-friendly sites and penalizing mobile-unfriendly sites. While some agency websites are mobile-friendly, a great many are not. We will do well to pay attention—almost 25% of traffic on government websites is coming from","date" : "2015-04-15T14:15:42-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"dmccleskey" : "Dawn Pointer McCleskey"},"topics" : {
        
            "mobile" : "Mobile",
            "plain-language" : "Plain language",
            "search" : "Search",
            "search-engine-optimization" : "Search engine optimization",
            "usability" : "Usability"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-04-15-mobilegeddon-government-edition.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/04/2015-04-15-mobilegeddon-government-edition.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/04/2015-04-15-mobilegeddon-government-edition.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/04/2015-04-15-mobilegeddon-government-edition.md","slug" : "mobilegeddon-government-edition","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/04/15/mobilegeddon-government-edition/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/250-x-250-Burning-phone-Sergey-Peterman-Hemera-Thinkstock-ThinkstockPhotos-100882419.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Burning phone\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMuch is being said and \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/03/03/trends-on-tuesday-google-to-implement-mobile-friendly-rankings/\"\u003ewritten\u003c/a\u003e about the coming \u003ca href=\"http://searchengineland.com/infographic-mobile-seo-tips-217912\"\u003eMobilegeddon/Mopocalypse\u003c/a\u003e on April 21st—the day Google’s ranking algorithm will begin boosting results for mobile-friendly sites and penalizing mobile-unfriendly sites. While some agency websites are mobile-friendly, a great many are not.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe will do well to pay attention—\u003ca href=\"https://analytics.usa.gov/\"\u003ealmost 25% of traffic on government websites\u003c/a\u003e is coming from mobile devices. And if responding to the UX needs of 25% of site visitors is not enough argument, perhaps the Google algorithm update will convince agencies that it’s time to upgrade. It’s already hard to get noticed if your content is ranking 4th or lower in search results—this change may make a site effectively disappear.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo, 25% of website visitors would be helped by a mobile-friendly display. But in addition to reading information on mobile, they are also searching for that information via mobile devices. Search Engine Land posted an article recently looking at \u003ca href=\"http://searchengineland.com/mobile-search-just-mobile-friendly-217905\"\u003ethe relationship between mobile “friendliness” and mobile SEO\u003c/a\u003e. Here are some questions they posed, answered through the government lens.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"1-why-do-we-need-a-mobile-friendly-website\"\u003e1. Why Do We Need A Mobile-Friendly Website?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/03/250-x-444-Google-search-engine-Digital-Government-21st-Century-DigitalGov-Android.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Screen capture of Digital Gov\u0026#39;s mobile website at the top of search results on Google.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\nThe Google algorithm update coming on April 21st will penalize sites that are not mobile friendly. If developing a responsive site that would serve all users is too high a hurdle for the near future, consider standing up a parallel site for mobile users.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGoogle has developed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/\"\u003eMobile-Friendly Test\u003c/a\u003e so you can find out what they think of your site. You can also run the \u003ca href=\"http://validator.w3.org/mobile/\"\u003eW3C mobileOK Checker\u003c/a\u003e. Everyone will benefit from running these tests—even if your site is responsive, your font may be too small, your links too close together, etc.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"2-is-it-true-that-a-mobile-friendly-website-is-optimized-for-mobile-search-and-doesnt-need-seo\"\u003e2. Is It True That A Mobile-Friendly Website Is Optimized For Mobile Search And Doesn’t Need SEO?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo, not true. Saying a site is mobile-friendly just refers to its display. Just like any site, it will still need to communicate its content and structure in a way that search engines will consume and rank highly. Improving your SEO will allow users to find your great content not only on Google, but on your site, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and other sites as well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"3-how-can-i-tell-if-a-page-is-mobile-friendly-or-not\"\u003e3. How Can I Tell If A Page Is Mobile-Friendly Or Not?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are a number of tools available. Run them \u003cstrong\u003eeven if you think you don’t need to—you may be unpleasantly surprised\u003c/strong\u003e!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGoogle’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/\"\u003eMobile-Friendly Test\u003c/a\u003e and the \u003ca href=\"http://validator.w3.org/mobile/\"\u003eW3C mobileOK Checker\u003c/a\u003e or site-level assessment\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePage-specific assessment needs to be done within Google Webmaster Tools’ \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-usability?pli=1\"\u003eMobile Usability page\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/\"\u003eGoogle PageSpeed Insights\u003c/a\u003e. For an additional perspective, while you’re at it, run \u003ca href=\"http://yslow.org/\"\u003eYSlow\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"4-were-already-doing-traditional-seodo-we-also-need-mobile-seo-and\"\u003e4. We’re Already Doing Traditional SEO—Do We Also Need Mobile SEO? and\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003col start=\"5\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow Is Mobile SEO Different From Local SEO?\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMobile SEO incorporates additional elements to focus on the person.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLocation services: not just city-level location, but where a person is at a particular moment. Depending on the information and services your agency provides, location services could have a significant impact on UX.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePage load time: pages should load in under one second. Test your speed on \u003ca href=\"https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/\"\u003eGoogle PageSpeed Insights\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://yslow.org/\"\u003eYSlow\u003c/a\u003e. There are a number of other page speed tests available – go to your favorite search engine and just search for “page speed test.”\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhile not included in online SEO analyzers, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/08/15/get-out-of-the-jargon-trap-plain-language-training-can-help/\"\u003eplain language\u003c/a\u003e will improve UX and SEO, and boost your mobile-friendliness. You can assess your readability at the page level using a number of online tools, like \u003ca href=\"https://readability-score.com/\"\u003eReadability-Score.com\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://read-able.com/\"\u003eThe Readability Test Tool\u003c/a\u003e, among others. The more your site’s language matches how searchers look for your content, the better. Analytics, like those available through \u003ca href=\"http://search.digitalgov.gov/\"\u003eDigitalGov Search\u003c/a\u003e and the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/guides/dap/\"\u003eDigital Analytics Program\u003c/a\u003e, will tell you what words people are using to look for information and services on your site.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"6-should-content-be-the-same-for-mobile-units-and-desktops\"\u003e6. Should Content Be The Same For Mobile Units And Desktops?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot necessarily. Good old fashioned UX research will tell you whether your users would benefit from a different presentation or depth of content than what they want to interact with on your desktop site.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"7-what-is-the-best-mobile-configuration-for-us\"\u003e7. What Is The Best Mobile Configuration For Us?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhatever configuration you decide to go with, be sure to employ \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/topics/user-experience/\"\u003eUX best practices\u003c/a\u003e!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResponsive: a single site and design that changes configuration depending on the size of the screen.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdaptive, or Dynamic serving: to use the same URLs to serve different experiences to desktop and mobile users. This could be good if leaders feel passionately about the site header.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSeparate sites: maintain the desktop experience and serve a different experience to mobile users through a dedicated subdomain.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDawn Pointer McCleskey is a Search Analyst with DigitalGov Search at GSA. She can be found on Twitter, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/dapmcc\"\u003e@dapmcc\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}