Mobile Website - will it pass Google Mobile-Friendly Test?

[JR123]

Hi all,

Ok, so it's sort of panic time for us. The April 21st Google Mobile algorithm will be here before we know it, and we've never really made an attempt to use any sort of mobile or responsive change to our website.

I have a scheduled meeting today with a design company that will create a responsive website for us, but no way it would be done in 3 weeks before that Google update (more realistically it would be completed a minimum of about 2 months from now).

So, I need a QUICK band-aid to pass the Mobile Friendly test until our website is actually designed with responsive coding.

My first thought was using the Mobile theme that is included with 3D Cart.

Do any of you use this? If so, have you tested it against https://www.google.com/webmasters/to...bile-friendly/ to see if it actually passes as mobile friendly in the eyes of Google?

Also, assuming YES to above, I've read on the forum about drop-off in traffic, duplicate content penalties, etc. from Google when using the Mobile templates. Any advice on avoiding that?

We have great organic rankings, and I fear that if we use the Mobile module, we'll screw something up. Then again, if we don't and we aren't deemed "Mobile friendly" by 4/21, we could experience potentially (and probable) negative impacts to our organic positions as well.

Any advice is GREATLY appreciated!
-James

[Toobusy]

I've not noticed a drop off in traffic, or penalities for duplicate content. I use one of 3dc's responsive templates

Awesome!This page is mobile-friendly.

[JR123]

Thank you Toobusy. I don't think that duplicate content is usually (if ever) a result of Responsive design, since it just uses the same URL with unique coding to fit the screen size of various devices. I'm more concerned with 3D Cart's actual mobile module (where your website becomes something like "mobile.website.com" when viewed on mobile devices) as opposed to a responsive template.

While we will be likely having our website completely re-designed as responsive, it can take many months to do so and I need some sort of "band-aid" before the 4/21 Google Mobile update.

Anyone else who uses 3D Cart's Mobile Module have any input?

Thanks in advance!
-James

[Ruppy]

After reading a bit on the criteria for whether is sees you as mobile, Im going to guess it will not see the old mobile module as mobile. They are using a blanket yes/no. There are no in betweens. It is looking for the html that shows you as mobile when it crawls your page. I dont think the coding for the old module is going to fall into their criteria.

Maybe someone can correct me.

Here is the main criteria. I read there are actually over 200. You might get the first 3 but probably not the last one. Many of the common reasons why a website isn't mobile-friendly is because:

• The content is wider than the screen: This requires users to scroll side-to-side to read the page.
• The text too small: This means the user must zoom to read text on the page.
• The links too close together: On a smartphone, links should be easy to tap with your fingers -- this means that the links should be big enough and in natural location to tap. Most smartphone users hold their phone in their right hand and tap links with their thumb.
• The mobile viewport isn't set: This is a little more on the technical side of things, but the mobile viewport controls the width of the page for the device. If your website displays a desktop landscape when smartphone visitors land on your page, then the viewport is not set for mobile on that page. This is an extra special case where responsive design comes in handy -- responsive design will automatically adjust the viewport based on the device.

[JR123]

Well now I think I might take a different approach and use one of the Responsive templates rather than the mCommerce (mobile) module. Hopefully the responsive templates will pass the Google Mobile Friendly test?

[Toobusy]

Mine does, I've taken the test.

[brian.bills]

You can use Google's Mobile Friendly Test here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/to...bile-friendly/

I used it with the mCommerce version of my site (https://www.mydomain/mobile/) as I'm also in the middle of transitioning over to a responsive template and the mobile version passed just fine. Hopefully I can get over to a responsive version so I don't have to deal with duplicate content issue for very long.

[windycityparrot]

first of all duplicate content is not a penalty (read the google patent) and you will not see a drop in traffic due to "duplicate content" google wants respsonsive design , not just mobile I thought I had it worked out last year when I deployed shopgate as a stand alone mobile but now my 600 plus disqus blog posts are not mobile friendly and would have to hand transferred to shopgate thus we too are scrambling - we're using a premium 3dcart RD theme which requires some massaging but is actually quite lovely

I'm launching without some desired customizations. I created my own PSD's and contacted nine 3-D cart silver partners. Three got back to me - one give me a price on what as it turns out cannot be done & one of the gave me blowback about my customization of checkout one which meet leads me to believe they don't know much more about responsive design than I do

If you're looking to get it done quickly and right just go with a 3-D cart RD template (I have no relationship other than being a customer with 3-D card)

[Rod]

You can use Google's Mobile Friendly Test here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/to...bile-friendly/

I used it with the mCommerce version of my site (https://www.mydomain/mobile/) as I'm also in the middle of transitioning over to a responsive template and the mobile version passed just fine. Hopefully I can get over to a responsive version so I don't have to deal with duplicate content issue for very long.

Thank you Brian for the link to the mobile friendly test. Just tried it on my store, www.bead3.com and got an "Awesome! This page is mobile friendly." I figured it was but it is nice knowing for sure!

[Shorne]

Tried and passed the "Mob Friendly" test with with some restrictions. I have had problems with the Googlebot being unable to find some of my product images. The less than helful reason given by Google is that my "Robots.text restricts access".

Google support (India) simply did not understand the issue and gave no help whatsoever except to repeat that "the robots.txt file was restricting access". Of course I made sure it did not and after much anguish and hair pulling I found out the real reason.

I have been putting some image URL's with the HTTPS prefix into my product feeds instead of HTTP. It was this (to me) obscure reason that the robots.txt issue came up. Easy to correct once you stumble upon the reason for the problem.

I mention this this only because some users may encounter this particular issue and not know what caused it.

[edcroteau]

My site was using an old theme (tables - yuck). The robots.txt was blocking the mobile version - I contacted tech support at 3d and basically he said to use an HTML5 template. I switched to one after copying all my customization of template files and I passed the mobile friendly test tool right off. Site looks way better and I'm glad to finally be over the table design of the 2000 era.