Google Adds “Mobile-friendly” Label to Search Results – Does Your Hotel Have a Mobile Strategy?

Google's efforts to make mobile search much easier!

Did you know that 3 out of 5 searches are conducted on a mobile device, including smart phones and tablets? Additionally, 50% of travel or restaurant mobile searches result in a purchase¹. With these stats, it is no wonder Google has been pushing features to make searching easier for mobile users. But the real question is, does your hotel or business have a mobile strategy in place?

Last June, the search giant announced that it will alert U.S.-based searchers if a site has a "faulty redirect" that leads mobile users to the business's desktop website. Also, sites that are not mobile-friendly will get demoted in mobile search results. Over the past few weeks, Google took another step in improving searcher's mobile web experience by rolling out its "mobile-friendly" label, which warns mobile searchers whether they'll see a mobile-friendly site or not when clicking on the result.

How can hotel websites qualify and optimize for Google's "mobile-friendly" label?

In order to be eligible to have the "mobile-friendly" label on your hotel's search results listing, there are a few things that your hotel website must pass:

• The site must not include features that are uncommon on mobile devices – such as Flash.
• Content and text font must be legible without the user needing to zoom in or scroll horizontally
• Navigation must be simple enough for users to easily click on the correct link

Google mentioned that they are experimenting with using the above criteria as a ranking signal². Hotels should check if a page on their site is mobile-friendly, and can use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

Read the full article here to learn how your hotel can optimized your site for Google's mobile-friendly label.