infoTECH Feature

February 10, 2012

Determine if Your Web Site is Mobile Device Friendly

As more people access Web sites on mobile devices these days, it’s increasingly important that those sites are easy to navigate and use on smaller screens. For those of you who maintain a Web site for your organization, Google (News - Alert) offers a tool that can help you determine the mobile usability of your site.

Google’s GoMo site provides an online tool known as the GoMoMeter that analyzes your site to see how it scores on the mobile meter. To kick off the test, click on the link that says “Put your site to the test” and then click on the link that says “Test your site.”

Enter the full URL of your Web site, either with or without the http prefix, and then click on the TEST YOUR SITE button. The GoMoMeter then goes into action analyzing your site, a process that will likely take at least a few minutes depending on the size and depth of your site.

After the scan completes, GoMo displays your site’s home page as it would look on a mobile device. Google then asks you for the category of your Web site — Online only, Lead generation, Brand-driven, or multichannel. Following that is a series of questions that differ depending on your site’s category. For example, choosing the Online only category triggers the following questions:

1. Do you see broken images or missing content?

2. Can you read the text without zooming or scrolling?

3. Can links and buttons be clicked with a thumb?

4. Is the shopping cart visible on the page?

5. Is search functionality easily accessible?

Tapping on the Get Results button then reveals key details about your site’s mobile experience, including how long it takes to load, whether images are appearing properly, whether you can easily view the site without pinching and zooming, and whether you can click on links can be clicked on using your thumbs.

Beyond those tidbits, you can view a full report on your site in the form of a PDF dubbed the GoMoMeter Report. The report compares your results with those of a fully optimized mobile site and offers advice on how to tweak or redesign your site to make it more mobile user friendly.

Of course, Google is also trying to drum up business for certain third-party providers. So the search giant lists several vendors that can help you build a mobile version of your site. The company also gives you an option to create a site using its own Google Sites service. Most organizations would probably want to stick with their current hosting company to host their site’s mobile version, but at least Google provides a few options to consider.

GoMo doesn’t provide a lot of details about your site’s mobile friendliness. But it’s certainly a good place to start to ensure that your site is easily accessible and usable on the vast array of smartphones and tablets in use today.


Lance Whitney is a journalist, IT consultant, and Web Developer with almost 20 years of experience in the IT world. To read more of Lance's articles, please visit his columnist page

Edited by Rich Steeves
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