Spring’s here and you’ve got some time to kill in the waiting room so you pull out your phone and start browsing around for some new clothes. You access your favourite store’s site but you have to squint to see the item you’re looking for. You zoom in and end up dragging your thumb all over the phone trying to find it—forget about the checkout experience—so you move on to another store. Whether or not it’s purchasing a new shirt, looking for store hours or just trying to get some information, you’re disappointed and frustrated. If you’ve got a smart phone—and really who doesn’t these days—you’ve been there.

Yesterday, Google made a monumental change to their search algorithm by rewarding responsive websites with higher rankings in their search results.  A responsive site is one that adapts its layout to display information in an easily viewable format for whatever size screen it is accessed from. For example, if you’re reading this on a desktop or laptop, just shrink the width of your browser window to see how our site reconfigures itself. Google’s goal: avoid user frustration caused by hard to view websites when using their search engine. Google’s principle: you need to maximize the user’s brand experience with every possible interaction. Google’s message: if your site isn’t responsive, you’re delivering a poor brand experience to your users and this is unacceptable in today’s hypercompetitive marketplace.

Delivering products and services that provide positive brand experience in the best way possible is nothing new. That said, with the advancement of technology and our access to it, the definition of “best way” has never evolved so rapidly. The proliferation of access to the internet has given your business—and your competitor's—more chances for customer interaction than ever before. This creates many new and unique opportunities to deliver brand value. At aasman, we have been taking advantage of this particular one by building all of our websites since 2013 with a responsive design. And, as Google’s decision demonstrates, those that don’t take advantage of the ever-changing technological environment will literally slip in the rankings.

-Steve

For more information about Google's changes check out this article