In the last few days I have been getting a few notices via Webmaster tools from Google stating that some of my personal sites are not mobile friendly. Aka responsive. Google states that this will indeed result in lowering search rankings on mobile search.
So Google is now forcing you to have a responsive website! This is huge, this means that Google is now affecting your business in dictating that you need to invest in a responsive website. First I don’t think Google should force business owners to spend more money on their business.
Pinch and zoom isn’t always a bad experience. Heck sometimes I like the big website that I can target an area to read as opposed to scroll flicking on my phone.
Most of my mobile web surfing is finding information/research. And there are tons of sites that have so many ads on their sites and so sometimes being able to pinch and “hide” those ads is nice. On mobile the ad ALWAYS gets in your way!
Is a responsive site a good idea, yes it is. Despite the fact that pinch and zoom isn’t necessarily always bad, the upside to a responsive website actually gives a better user experience. And even though it might seem like a fairly large expense, responsive will now become the norm and the over priced services some companies are charging will start to fall. Ive seen some ridicioulous responsive prices out there where companies are charging 50% and sometimes 100% of the desktop version for responsive design. Generally the additional work is about 30% more work. So you shouldn’t be paying more than that. I go into more detail on this at a blog post I wrote a while back. Responsive Design over a native Mobile App
So if your website is outdated and doesn’t include a responsive version for at least the phone, you will need to update/upgrade your code. Mobile search probably accounts for about 40-50% of search out there so you definitely want to be getting this traffic. And don’t over pay for a responsive design, it isn’t really that much more work. There are companies who really over complicate things and price goug their clients. If they come back with a huge markup on responsiveness stop talking to them and find another company.