Google announced that it will give better ranking for sites that are mobile-friendly. In this article I will give you tips to optimize your Elgg network for mobile devices.
Overview
Starting April 21st, Google started to implement a new algorithm, which aims to boost the ranking of mobile-friendly sites. This means that any site without a mobile-friendly view will not be crawled by the Googlebot for Smartphones, thus affecting your target audience. You need to prepare your elgg network to make it compatible with mobile devices.
What can you do to improve your elgg network?
First of all, make sure the theme you are using is at least using the “viewport” element. Avoid any themes that are not responsive or plugins that adds sliders on your homepage. Most of the “homepage sliders” available for elgg won’t adapt to different screen size, and will affect your network ranking. Be very careful when you choose a theme, because it might not be compatible with mobile devices.
Responsive? Mobile-Friendly? Is elgg prepared for these changes?
Yes. Elgg now comes with a theme called “Aalborg”, which is completely responsive. Just activate the them and your elgg site will be completely responsive, and will comply with the new mobile-friendly update pushed by Google.
A theme that I like is not mobile-friendly, what can I do?
This is a little bit tricky because you could either make it mobile-friendly or ask the theme developer if he can make the theme responsive. The first option requires a lot of effort from your part, because you will have to learn how to code. The second one might work, if the developer is still interested in making elgg themes. Always your best option is to select a responsive theme, to avoid headaches in the future.
Although the changes that Google made won’t affect your desktop users, data shows that the world is moving to mobile devices and you need to be prepared, otherwise you will not attract new users to join your elgg network
This concludes Mobile Optimization for elgg
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Happy Hosting!
Rodolfo Hernandez
