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Welcome to the thunder::tech Mobile Testing Lab

posted by Development

If you've been to our office recently, you’ve probably seen our Mobile Testing Lab. We tell everyone about it; clients, partners, students, interviewees, journalists. We really like to talk about it. And we should, it’s really amazing.

We like to show it off
But that's not why we built it. I mean, that’s partially why we built it; we wanted to be able to talk about it. We said it would help show people that we are committed to this whole mobile thing. We said when we pitch a new responsive website or an amazing new mobile app that it would show clients that we knew what we were talking about. We said that it would get people talking. We never thought people would actually use is as much as they do.

It really wasn't that hard
Building a mobile testing lab really sounds like a lot of work.

• You have to come up with a plan. Sketches help.
• You have to convince a lot of people.
• You have to build it.
• You have to run electrical lines. This is dangerous stuff.

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SEO and Keyword-Rich URLs

posted by Search

Allow me to introduce you to Google’s EMD update from last October:

• Search Engine Land - Deconstructing The Google EMD Update
• SEOmoz - The Exact Match Domain Playbook: A Guide and Best Practices for EMDs
• Search Engine Roundtable - Google EMD Update: Exact Match Domains No Longer Rank As Well

Keyword-rich URLs just ain’t what they used to be.

EMD backstory

Google was tired of websites ranking well because their URL had a few keywords in it, but the site itself offered no real value. This used to be a big proponent of SEO. Well, Google eventually got so sick of it they made a MASSIVE update to handle it. Suddenly sites that had “Keyword URLs” dropped if they didn’t back them up with real content.
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Is Responsive Design Bad for SEO?: Part 2

posted by Development

During the past couple days, an article has been circling around the thunder::tech office. This article, When Responsive Web Design is Bad for SEO by Bryson Meunier, has also caused a lot of discussion in the Web community. Here is the second installment of our response to the author’s final three points as to why people should favor optimization practices over responsive design. Read the first installment here.

3.) "When Responsive Layout Increases Load Time Significantly," stop everything and re-examine the entire site.

You'll find that the wrong stakeholders are making the wrong decisions for the wrong reasons. The amount of code to add responsive capabilities to a site is nominal at worst, but more often miniscule. A well-made responsive site can be a tiny fraction of the size of a somewhat-well-made mobile-only or desktop-only site with the same features.
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Is Responsive Design Bad for SEO?: Part 1

posted by Development

During the past couple days, an article has been circling around the thunder::tech office. This article, When Responsive Web Design is Bad for SEO by Bryson Meunier, has also caused a lot of discussion in the Web community. We at thunder::tech have been strong proponents for responsive Web design and found issue with some of Meunier’s points. Our User Experience team decided to respond to each of the five factors the author says to choose optimization practices over responsive design. This first installment includes the first two points:

1.) "When Desktop Website Does Not Contain Categories Mobile Searchers Are Looking For," the content is at fault.

The following quote from Adam Audette and George Michie is the underlying assumption here: "Mobile websites: Responsive design helps, but smartphone users have fundamentally different needs and only a site designed to meet those unique needs will produce the best outcome for the user and for the business," This assumption isn't always going to be wrong, but it's still jumping to a conclusion that's likely to disrupt the user experience rather than support it. The needs of desktop users can be time-and-location-specific and the needs of mobile users can be neither; they're just less likely to be so.

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thunder::tech releases industry-focused 2012 Mobile Report

posted by Public Relations

Mobile marketing is an evolving trend that essential for businesses to recognize and respond to in today’s digital world. With nearly half of all adults in America owning a smartphone and 70% using these devices while shopping in-store, a mobile focus is what marketers should be targeting. In our first-ever Mobile Report, we focused specifically on mobile-optimized and responsive designed websites as ways to embrace this marketing trend.

Our Research team looked at how the top companies in the nation and the Cleveland area have positioned themselves for this mobile trend, or how they have failed to do so. Our results were surprising, to say the least.



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