Author Archives: Mark Orton

Google Enforces Mobile Readiness

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April 21, 2015 – New Search Ranking Rules Favor Mobile Responsive Sites

Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.

 

Read the whole Google announcement.

You can test your site(s) on a Google test page : Mobile-Friendly Test

Take HeedGoogle-mobile-test-2015-03-20_1704

BTW – I’ve written earlier on this topic: Are Businesses in My Hometown Mobile Ready?

Developing Proposals

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proposalRecently I worked with a new client on their proposal process. This revisit brought me to expand my notes. 

(Download this article)

Objectives for proposals

  • Communicate with decision makers
  • Win business that you can successfully deliver at a profit.
  • Develop and retain repeat customers

The first point is key to the task. Your proposal must win the confidence of the prospect while defining the approach, scope, deliverables, and pricing in such a way as to assure that you can exceed expectations and do it profitably. Continue reading →

Product/Service Development – early customer input from Peter Spear

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It is a well-known fact that early customer involvement in product or service development leads to better results in the marketplace, much higher quality and lower costs. Despite the fact that this practice has been considered a best practice for several decades, most entrepreneurs and small business people still fail to follow it. The results are predictable and almost always negative. Continue reading →

Go Mobile – Design Your Business Website for Smart Phones First

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In earlier postings ((“Are Businesses in My Hometown Mobile Ready?” and “Is Your Business Website Missing the Boat on Smartphones?“)) I have pointed out what must now be a commonplace bit of knowledge about how customers are behaving – well over 50% in the US are using their smart phones as a primary tool to access the Web.

A recent article, “How Mobile-First Became Mobile-Only in the Emerging World” by Alec Oxenford, Co-Founder and CEO, OLX raises the interesting point that we need to move away from starting our web development work with the desktop as the target and start with the smart phone. Instead of adapting the sprawl of the desktop to the confines of an iPhone or Android device, start from the mind set that most of our customers are reaching us via that screen, not the desktop.

This will lead to some very different conclusions about what information should appear where. For example, for a retail business, how easy is it on a smart phone for your customers to find out where you are located, what your hours are and what your telephone number is? How many pinches, scrolls, and menu taps are required? Since this is such fundamental information this should be on the first screen they see.smartphone penetration by age and income in the US