This week, I got one of those warning messages from Google Webmaster Tools for one of my domains. These emails are a great service, but they can also raise your blood pressure. The gist of the warning was one of my websites wasn’t mobile-friendly. My heart sank as I read the details and saw the words “critical” and “rankings” in the same paragraph.
The reason this warning was stressful was over the weekend, I had converted this particular site from Joomla to WordPress. In the process, I used a mobile-responsive template. So, how I could it be that I was getting these warnings? The truth is that the warnings had been building up all along, but Google had never emailed me before. For some reason, Google sent out these emails in mass and the distribution list was probably created before I made the switch.
Google’s Mobile Responsive Test Tool
Google has been suggesting sites become more mobile-friendly for awhile now. They’ve added some nice tools so you have a better idea of whether they think your site is good to go. One of my favorite is the mobile-friendly test that you can find at:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
You simply enter in the URL you want to test and it will tell you if you pass or fail.
Even though I passed the test, I did notice that some resources were blocked because of my robots.txt file. That’s something I’ll check out.
If you don’t pass the test, you do get indications of the major error.
More Resources
If your site fails the mobile responsive test, you still have options. Google provides a listing of various services and tools that can work with existing content management systems ranging from Drupal to WordPress. However, you may run into a situation where there is a solution, but you need to upgrade your system. That was the problem I faced and used the opportunity to change platforms at the same time.