This brief post is to inform readers that some of you will notice website appearance changes when you access my website. This will primarily be noticed by those who access my website from some type of mobile device. While the content on the website’s homepage will be the same, it will appear to some in a two-column format instead of its usual three-column format. Those readers who access my website via home computers will likely still see the website in its usual three-column format and may notice no changes at all.
The reason for this change is that Google, the industry leader in web-search engines, is instituting a policy that websites that do not manifest visually in a user-friendly way on mobile computing devices will be penalized in some Google’s web-search functions. In plain language, what it means is that screens that appear in normal readable sizes on home computers with regular screens can appear in text formats too small to read when they appear on a small mobile, hand-held screen. This Google change involves websites being re-formatted with an adaptive or “responsive” technology that can determine whether a reader is accessing a website from a regular PC or a mobile computing device. This new technology recognizes what type of computing device is accessing a website and presents the information to that computing device in a format that is suitable for its on-screen appearance.
In simple terms, it means that the material on my website, for some viewers, will now be compressed horizontally and extended vertically in its on-screen presentation. If previously-read information appears on your mobile device in a new position, you will know why this has happened. For example, you may need to scroll down to find my blog posts. The information on my website’s homepage will all still be available somewhere on the mobile-friendly format, but one may need to search for its new position.
I am not a computer technician so I am trying to explain this switch-over in the best way I can. Those readers who are techies can surely understand this adaptive format presentation technology better that I can. I couldn’t possibly know how to implement this change, so I paid a technician to implement the necessary new technology formats at my website so it will retain its previous Google search engine treatments. If you experience glitches in accessing information at my website or have difficulty in navigating the site, please email Raymond Mills, the web-hosting administrator, at rmills@phcweb.net about any difficulties. Reader feedback is necessary and helpful to him in creating a new, mobile device-friendly alternate format for my website.
This Google-inspired change applies to all websites, and was done to make the web more friendly to mobile devices (see link below). Hopefully, my website will look “friendly” to those accessing it via mobile computing devices. Those using home PCs may notice no difference at all, but I thought this explanation should be given to all readers so you will know why my website may appear differently to you depending on what type of computing device you use to access my website.
http://www.cnet.com/news/google-search-will-now-favor-mobile-friendly-sites/
