I kept the title of this post short and sweet.Unfortunately, if you don't like to read a long post, it's not short and sweet. The discussion would appear to be how to have a mobile friendly Zen Cart site. But really, that's only part of what any website owner needs to know.

The first thing is: Don't Panic!!! I did for a few days so you don't have to.

Google has announced that as of April 21, they will start using mobile friendliness (or unfriendliness) as part of their ranking process. 

And the panic begins.

All of sudden I got clients and Zen Cart users calling and emailing in a dither because they think this is going to impact their sites. Will it? Maybe. It all depends on your site, your buyers and your reliance on mobile searches.

Who Needs a Mobile Ready Website?

So the first thing to look at is your site, your customers and your business. There are definitely some businesses who should be mobile – and in fact may already be because it is an obvious conclusion. Two scenarios for example. First, is a client of mine from Athens, Ga, a wholesale plant nursery. Her clients are landscapers who might well be standing out in a field somewhere who love to be able to place their order as they are working up a plan. She's using my mobile template which is a perfect solution for buying driven customers like those landscapers. They need to get to the product and buy with no fuss, muss, bells or whistles. They are automatically directed to the mobile solution first thing when they get to the site. Her customers are not the general public.

The other website is the first one I installed the mobile solution in several years ago. He sells corn hole supplies – the beanbags with college branding. I asked him at the time why he thought this was a good idea and described a college party with cornholing activities. He could see in his mind one of those students whipping out his phone and buying new beanbags with good Old UVA printed on them. (living in Charlottesville, VA, that allusion was required – replace that with UGA or whatever school…). Make it easy for drunk college students to buy beanbags. I laughed. He had a great point though.

Who is buying from you? Age makes major difference. The younger the visitors, the more likely they could be browsing your site right now. But who is buying from you? So another scenario to ponder. This has come up a couple of times this past year. Sites selling accessibility aids for seniors. So whose doing the buying? Either the seniors themselves or their children – grown middle-aged or older children. This is not group of buyers that are going to insist on or benefit from a mobile site. 

Google's Site Ranking for Mobile Friendly Sites

Each site owner needs to look at the site purpose, the customer base and the SEO benefits that site may be getting from mobile searches. Did you catch that? Mobile Searches. If you don't depend on Mobile Search, as opposed to desktop search, you can just ignore this whole thing if you want.

I have sites that are information based and will never be mobile friendly. And I don't care. One site, AllThingsZenCart.com is a database driven site done quickly with a site tool so that the database can be searched. It is clunky but the purpose was to put that information somewhere so that I and any other Zen Cart user can find out about admin settings. I put it up the quickest way I could. I make no money off it. Creating a mobile version of that site would be incredibly complicated and time-consuming. There's no reason for me to make the effort.

If you have good organic SEO and actually place in Google searching high enough to be noticed, your desktop SEO will not be affected by Google's changes. Only mobile searches will be affected.

One other side note: there are already instructions being posted on the web about how to fool the Mobile-Friendly Tester. Oops. By posting that tester, Google gave a lot away with this initiative – making the Mobile Friendly designation a bit suspect.

Why the Push for Mobile Right Now By Google?

A study done in 2012 by Google (I'll post that reference when I find it again) showed that folks at that time were still mainly buying on the desktop. I'm sure that's different today but no one has offered up a new survey to tell us any more than that. Google certainly isn't offering any proof that mobile users are driving sales or businesses. The trend was then and still is for many folks to look at a site on the mobile and switch to a tablet or desktop computer to buy. No matter what, the buying process on a phone is just onerous unless you have the magic thumbs of the young folks. 

So why is Google pushing this out now? Michael Andrews, a Content Strategist and UX Design Manager at Sapient Corporation posted a comment today on that Google blog post announcement. His take on this situation looks at what's driving this for Googl  and not at what Google is now requiring (which I'll get to in a minute; I promise!).

"Google tends to punish actors that harm their economic interests — for example, downgrading black hat SEO.  They are not performing well in the mobile search and ad  space, as people use apps and social media more on these platforms to access mobile content.  So they want to have more mobile-friendly webpages so that people use Google search more on mobile devices.   Whereas in the past they punished deceptive practices, now they are punishing practices that are more broadly incompatible with their business needs."

Now that makes sense. I was truly wondering what was going on because Google's Mobile Friendly tester and guidelines do not seem to be written for the users.

The Guidelines Then

When I first created my mobile template for Zen Cart, I followed the guidelines Google posted for mobile sites. One of those guidelines said a link to a mobile version was okay and that's always been my recommendation on a website. Doing it that way, Google said it would know that the link was to mobile or alternate content and so would avoid having the site for being penalized for duplicate content. And yes, they gave the impression that they recognized that as mobile content.

The Reality Now

The reality is that Google Mobile-Friendly Tester (I would never have hyphenated that folks!) is not set up to detect their still recommended code. The only way it can work is to have an automated redirect for mobile users to the mobile version.

Panic. Google has changed the rules on me. As an iPhone user, I do not want to be sent to a mobile version. I have my fancy smart phone so that I can see the site as I would view in on my desktop. I do not want someone deciding what I get to see and don't get to see. The navigation, the links, the information I may want to access may not be apparent on a mobile friendly site version.

Am I a minority? Probably. I admit to always being an outlier. My buying habits are never like everyone else's. I'm always trying to find something to buy that isn't even on the market. Sigh.

But there is something important about my preferences. iPhone. iPhone and iPad users tend to be in the higher tax brackets. They are the folks (not me) that have the money to buy in the first place. Catering to that group of potential buyers cannot steer you wrong. Once again it comes back to who your customers actually are.

When I get auto redirected to a mobile version on my phone, I usually don't bother with the site. I leave. The applies to any mobile friendly website no matter what technology the site uses for display.

So What is Best for Mobile Zen Cart Users?

I created my mobile template based on these guiding principles and on the impossibility in Zen Cart for dual templates:

• Easiest and clearest navigation
• Fast loading
• Most streamlined buying process

That means I did leave a lot out. That means I recommend leaving a lot out and not automatically redirecting possible mobile customers to the mobile version.

I also recommend giving your customers a choice about how they want to view your site. Google doesn't. There is the difference and there is the decision point for website owners.

Available Solutions for Zen Cart Owners

Responsive templates – I written about this before and I am adamant that this may not be the best solution for your shopping cart. Please take time to read this post about responsive design that outlines its disadvantages. The other side to that coin is what templates are on the market now. There are commercially available responsive templates being sold for Zen Cart. I haven't seen a well-done one yet for the same reasons that it's hard to find decent commercial templates at all for Zen Cart. That's mainly due to the fact they aren't designed for Zen Cart but are generic shopping cart templates that are forced into Zen Cart use. Many Zen Cart developers refuse to work on them at all. If you buy one, be sure to test it first with the Google tester. Some don't even past that test.

Dual Templates – there's at least two companies who have figured out some code to allow for template switching in Zen Cart. I've had no direct experience with them but creative programming can achieve that result by changing the way Zen Cart works with templates. The whole concept makes me nervous since it's a template but a change to the Zen Cart templating system.

Adaptive Templates – I and at least one other developer have this kind of template. I believe this is best at this point. Blurb: buy it here. Using an adaptive template now requires no changes to the Zen Cart core and can provide a great experience for the mobile buyer. In order to get Google's Mobile Friendly designation, you have to automatically send your visitors to that version.

All three pass muster with Google. Who really doesn't care about your users' experience.

Of course, you can also just wait. The Zen Cart core team is hard at work on the next version and templating or new templates may well be part of the next release.

It's a Choice; It's Your Choice.

In the end, as a site owner you must decide what is right for your site, your business and your customers. It's not an easy decision and you may not even have enough information to be able to feel comfortable about making that decision now. And you know what?  That's okay, too. If you don't rely now on Google Mobile search ranking now, you really don't have to do a thing now. Stay tuned to find out what Google may have in store for us next.