by Jini Stolk
Since I’m not part of the SEO community I missed the shock waves that swept through it when Google announced that their mobile search rules are being rejigged to favour websites compatible with mobile devices. What this means to the arts world is that we’re going to see a drop in site visits, sales and donations if our websites aren’t mobile-friendly, pronto. That IS shocking.
It seems that mobile web searches eclipsed desktop traffic for the first time last year, and smartphone users like easy to find sites and phone-friendly pages. If they’re looking for ticket information they’re going to get frustrated, and frustrated ticket buyers aren’t likely to become donors.
Luckily there’s an easy to use, downright fun online Mobile-Friendly Test. I was tremendously pleased to see that Creative Trust’s site passed with flying colours. Thank you Blair Francey and Shana Hillman for steering me in the right direction before I knew it was right.
While I was at it I checked a number of other Toronto arts sites – and sorry to say, but we didn’t all pass. (The large majority of Canadian charity websites are not mobile-friendly according to the State of the Canadian Web Nation Survey.)
The Test provides feedback on any aspects of your site that make it mobile- unfriendly, and tips on how to make it better.
Considering that phone donations are growing fast in the UK and Canada, we’d better get cracking on this.
