Doggie Golf & More About Mobile Friendly Blogs – Likely, CA
Today we find ourselves half way to the lush, green plains of Oregon. We’ve decided to stop-over at an all-time favorite spot of ours, a {{gasp}} private park in the most unlikely place you’d ever imagine. It’s a little gem of a place, nestled within the 99 human (and 80,000 cow) population of bustling Likely, CA. It’s way out there and close to really nothing except a lonely section of Hwy 395. We hadn’t really expected to stop here and it came as a last-minute decision made on the very morning of our departure.
So, why would we do such an uncharacteristic thing??
Well, this morning we woke, after days of heavy storms to Spring. REAL Spring. You know the type right? Where birds twitter, flowers bloom, bunny rabbits bounce across the grass and crisp air bites through aqua-blue skies. It’s the type of air that makes you feel ALIVE and even though we’d planned a rather long travel day we decided we just HAD to take advantage of it. So, we switched plans to cut our drive short, took 395 north and stopped for the night at our favorite RV golf course park.
Golf?????!!!
Those of you who know me know that I like golf about as much as I like hitting my head against a cement wall. Some folks (well, hubby more specifically) actually enjoy hacking away at teeny balls with illogically long sticks, but personally I can’t say it’s ever spoken to me. That said, I DO appreciate the beauty of golf courses (they do tend to be pretty) and if I can bring doggie along for the walk, then it becomes the perfect combo of an outing. Paul gets to whack balls while I enjoy a 4-mile hike in beautiful surroundings with doggie. Perfect!
The course here at Likely just happens to allows doggies. Yes, you heard me right -> a gorgeous 18-hole golf course set amongst green pastures, snow-topped mountains and lakes that allows you to bring your bestest of friends for a pleasant round on the course. We’ve had an awesome afternoon!
But enough about golf. The real the reason I decided to blog tonight was actually to answer some more questions about the whole Google Mobile Friendly update that I mentioned in my last blog post and which went into effect April 21st. A bunch of you bloggers had questions on it so I’ll answer them here. You non-bloggers can just ignore the rest of this post 🙂
What Does It Mean To Be Mobile Friendly? Blogs that are “mobile friendly” must have themes that re-size the blog to show properly on mobile devices such as smartphones. The blog can’t just squeeze and get smaller. It has to re-size & re-format so that text and pics are readable on a phone without tapping or zooming. Click here to see what Google means by this.
How Do I Know If My Blog Is Mobile Friendly? Take the test! Just go to this link, add in your blog URL and run it. Within less than a minute Google will tell you if your blog is mobile friendly are not. If Google says “yes” you’re good to go. If Google says “no” then read on.
What If My Blog Isn’t Mobile Friendly? If your blog isn’t mobile friendly Google will start to ding you in search rankings on mobile devices. It won’t affect your search rankings for people that search on a desktop or iPad (at least for now), but it will affect folks who search on smartphones. Also I consider it likely that over time Google will expand this to affect your general rankings too. So, it’s not critical that you become mobile friendly now, but if you want to keep your rankings you really should think about this in the near future.
How Can I Make My Blog Mobile Friendly? Argh! I don’t want to get dinged!! So, how can I fix this on my blog NOW? There are three easy ways:
- Switch to a “responsive” blog theme. Just search for “responsive” and find one you like. There are plenty of free themes out there that offer this feature, as well as a bunch of paid ones. This is really the “best” way to get mobile friendly, but I know that it can also be a royal pain to switch themes. So, here’s two other ways…
- Activate The Jetpack Mobile Theme. If you’re running the Jetpack plugin on your blog (WordPress folks) just activate the module called “Mobile Theme”. This will create a simple mobile version of your blog for mobile devices. It won’t be super-fancy, but it’ll meet the Google requirements.
- Install the WPTouch plugin. Again, for WordPress folks. The basic version of this plugin is free and automatically creates a mobile version of your blog for mobile devices. It’s pretty nice as-is, but if you want more options you can pay for the PRO version.
Switch to Responsive Ads Too. For those of you running Google ads (or Amazon banners) on your blog I suggest switching to “responsive” ad sizes too. This will make sure your ads size properly for any device.
That’s it folks! Hopefully that’s helped a few of you understand this new Google thing. I’m currently using WPTouch on my own blog and Paul’s blog. It’s working perfectly for him, but it’s not working consistently for me (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t). This has to do with the way my hosting service does caching (I know, annoying techie stuff…), so basically it means I’m going to have to switch to a “responsive” theme. I’m working on it this week and should hopefully have it up and running very soon. For most of you however, the other solutions I mentioned above should work well.
Related Posts:
- Stopover In An UN-Likely Place – Likely, CA
- RV Park Review – Likely Place Golf & RV Resort, Likely, CA
Really nice Sunset reflection pic. Enjoy your great weather.
Thanks. I always have fun w/ those rig reflection shots. “The Beast” is nice and shiny.
Nina
Thanks for the techie stuff Nina!! It’s amazing the breadth of scope of stuff you cover on here! I’m not into blogging or websites (so not even sure of the correct terms definitions!) but Kim is so she’ll be interested to read all about it.
As always, Thanks for your useful info!
On an unrelated subject, for someone like us who has a Millenicom Mifi but had it temporarily suspended before Verizon took it over, do you know exactly who or where we’d need to contact to ask to activate it again, when we get back on the road? (Assuming it would still work after all this time!)
Hmmmm…not sure. There used to be a dedicated Verizon number for the Millenicom folks. If you called that number back when the whole switch happened (last November) and activated your account with Verizon…and then suspended it…you should only have to un-suspend your account with Verizon direct (which you can do by calling or online).
If you never activated anything with Verizon back during the switch you won’t be able to get the deal now. However you CAN still use your old Millenicom MiFi by getting a new SIM card from Verizon and activating a new account. Make sense?
Nina
Perfect sense, thank you Help Desk 😉
Well, I think your present location is something you were posting about when I started following your blog. A very nice camp setting and free golf as I recollect in the often forgotten N.E. region of California. Those folks up there probably like that way.
Not quite free golf, but darn close. We paid $23 to play 9 holes today. Very reasonable.
Nina
Thank you for this…so helpful in so many ways! As it turns out, my theme is non-mobile friendly, but I think I am going to coast for a little while longer, or at least as long as I can. Have a bowl at Pho Country for me!
Glad I could help out! Just implement one of the “mobile plugins” on your blog and you’ll be good to go for now. Changing themes is a bear of a project!
Nina
P.S. We went to Pho in Carson City twice! Aaaand we discovered a great Thai place (Thai Basil) there too. It is was a solid foodie week.
Lovely sunset picture, capturing the RV life and mood! Much as I love golf I’ve seldom seen photographs that do courses justice. Certainly I’m always disappointed with my own and many professional pics just look too doctored or set up. I like your B&W ones here making a change from the usual. Sounds like you had a great day!
Cheers. I tried to have a little fun with the pics especially since I wasn’t paying too much attention to the actual game LOL. It was a great afternoon.
Nina
Thanks for the tips, Nina! Our blog is good to go (WP 2014 theme) according to the Google test. We are just starting to delve into Amazon ads on the site, so we will have to keep an eye on that.
Doggie golf…what a concept! That might not have worked well with Jenny, as she was a Golden Retriever. She would have kept bringing the ball back to me, and my score would have been sky-high! 🙂
Jim
Excellent that your blog passed the test! I thinks the last few years of WP themes are all fully responsive, so they’re a safe bet to use.
Paul tried to teach Polly to retrieve his ball, but she’s not quite the “retriever” type. She’ll do it occasionally to humor us, but that’s it LOL.
Nina
Nothing speaks to the freedom of this life like the pleasure of changing plans as you’re packing up 🙂 Looks like a most excellent decision! The setting is so beautiful and the pics Paul and Polly are delightful.
I do love traveling without reservations. Thankfully it’s easy most of spring and fall. Summer, however, especially in the more popular areas we can’t travel quite so loosely.
Nina
FIRST, awesome pics of Polly, I love to see her in her natural habitat!
SECOND, do you know if you can opt out of the auto mobile sites? My concern is- I hate mobile sites! I always click thru to the full site, and if I can’t find it, I use someone else’s website. I just feel that the mobile sites offer less information, and when I’m used to finding stuff in the real site, I don’t want to learn the mobile site. I hope I’m not alone in this thinking, I’m actually hoping google users revolt after google makes these changes.
THIRD, if u don’t make it mobile friendly, and then get a bad google rating, if u update your site in the future, are u stuck with the poor rating?
Thanks for the info, have a wonderful day!
So interestingly enough I’m kind of like you in that I PREFER the full site version even if I have to zoom. I’m not clear there’s a way to do this except if the site has a “show full site version” link, which has gone out if favor overtime he years. I’m kinda struggling with this on my own new theme (which I’m testing out right now) and not sure I’ll be able to implement it. If anyone knows any different please chime in!
And no Google ranking is never “fixed”. It changes as Google change their SEO terms and/or you change your site.
Nina
Hi Nina,
I seem to have remembered seeing something about this, so I went back to the dashboard and looked up WPtouch again on the find add-on page for WPtouch. On the FAQ tab, I found this, which is what I think you wanted to know?
Copied from that page.
Well, what if my users don’t like it and want to see my regular site?
There’s a theme switch in the footer area of WPtouch for your visitors to easily switch between the WPtouch view and your site’s regular appearance.
We even automatically put a little snippet of code into your current desktop theme which will be shown only to iPhone, iPod touch, Android or BlackBerry touch mobile device visitors, giving them control to switch between the two themes easily.
——–
So, I think, maybe you’re covered on this. I don’t have any mobile devices to check it out.
Bob
Cheers for the tip! I’m actually going to have to switch themes and remove WPTouch since it’s not working consistently for me (caching conflicts, even on their Pro version), but this is great news for other users!
Nina
Real Spring! I spent my winter in Florida this year, so Spring was underwhelming compared to where I have lived previously (Wisconsin). However, I drove through the Appalachian mountains yesterday, and it was Spring there! Wildflowers galore.
I’m glad you modified your plans for a pleasure stop! Thanks to your link, I tested my blog and it is mobile friendly 🙂
Enjoy Spring!
Glad your blog passes the test! And yeah REAL spring is hard to find. At Washoe there were LOTS of bunny rabbits, but only a few, small flowers. We’re getting closer to all the REAL flowers as we move towards OR.
Nina
Thanks so much for the mobile-friendly information! I never thought of that. I do the golf-hike thing with my hubby as well. For a real work-out, sometimes he lets me carry his bag. 😉
Oh I’m impressed you carry his bag! I like the workout, but I have to admit that’s a place I don’t go LOL. I’ll gladly hike along, but he carries his own gear.
Nina
I’m with you all the way on the golf thing. I don’t get it but lots of people pay big bucks to do it. Glad you had a good time. Hope that course is one of the enviro friendly ones that doesn’t use tons of pesticides and fertilizers to keep those greens perfect for the golfers. I do not have a clue how this could be true but my blog is mobile friendly. Probably because it’s a simpleton like me. Thanks for the link so I could check. You are just jam packed with good information!
So glad your blog passed the test! A lot of times it just depends on the theme you use. Sometimes the simpler themes are the best since they are already “mobile responsive”.
Nina
Love the golf pics, gotta go there sometime. Just in case you were not aware the Cascades are mostly open. You can get in at most of the parks. Even Crescent and Odell lakes are open and snow free. I was at Crescent Lake four weeks ago and it had no snow.
As soon as John saw Paul and Polly on the golf course, he knew exactly where you were without reading any further:) Only one thing wrong with the photo…You should be carrying the bag! When you go along, you become the caddie:) The course looks beautiful. Glad you made the change and decided to stop!
Thanks for the link! John plugged in our blog and it is mobile friendly:)
I think Paul knows better than to make me the Caddy 🙂 I’m the official dog-wrangler, photographer and ball-finder (well, I help on the latter anyway). That’s already a lot of responsibility 🙂
Nina
Yes, I guess you do already have your hand full:) Being the ball finder (helper) can be a tough job at times. It is very helpful when the ball stays right in the middle:)
I KNOW…I kept telling him that of course, but he didn’t seem to like it 🙂
Nina
Uh-oh. Looks like I have something else to add to the list for my blog wizard to help me with when we get back to Ashland. I don’t think our website passes the test, even though it seems to show up fine for me on my iPhone. (p.s. Eric says Paul looks like he has good form — he knows, because he was a golf pro in a previous life.) 🙂
Yeah, I had the same problem with mine. If you’re on WordPress you can try one of the two plugins I listed. They’re super easy to setup and should work for most.
Nina
P.S. Paul is very happy with the compliment 🙂
Hi Nina,
I’ve been wondering what to do about my site not being mobile friendly with Goggle threatening me with no listings and me not wanting to change my theme. WPtouch solved the problem nicely.
The only problem I had was finding the free download when I realized I had to use my dashboard and go to add plugins for the free version. I hunted around a long time on their page to find the free version before I got smart.
Thanks for the very useful tip.
Bob
So glad it worked for you! It’s a great, easy solution and the one I’m using on Paul’s blog. We have several blogger buddies who are using it too.
Nina
Sorry to bug again but I am using you as my product testers.
Any updates on the inverter? Having any strange issues? Able to power up more stuff, i.e., air conditioner, coffee maker, toaster?
Hehehe, thx..
Okay, so maybe not an air conditioner 😉
We are VERY happy with the new inverter. It produces nice clean power and we’re able to run everything we want (well, excluding air conditioners…I’m sure it could do it, but our batteries aren’t really able support it). Its super quiet too. We don’t hear a peep.
We also LOVE the load sharing feature. We’ve used it more than we thought we would and we’re about to make use of it again these next 2 weeks at a friends house where we’ll be hooked up to a regular household 15 amp cord. Our inverter (and supporting solar) will handle the remainder.
Nina
I know nothing about the tech issues but it seems you’re gaining the upper hand on things. Congrats, and I hope everything keeps working as needed.mit works well on my iPhone, and the iPad still works great with the full site.
Enticing photos of the area. Looks like you’ve enjoyed some awesome spring weather.
The new theme is up today and it looks different on the iPad, but hopefully that’s OK with most folks. Now to work on my page-loading speeds (which are terrible 🙁 )
Nina
Thanks for the instruction Nina. Happy to report I’m mobile friendly, now to get back to regular blogging. 😉
Excellent! Glad you’re mobile-ready 🙂
Nina
Seems to me this is Google’s way to “dig” the WordPress bloggers. Blogger (which is Google) is mobile friendly by default. Tested about six blogs which use blogger, all passed. Tested five WordPress, two passed and three didn’t. Although their motives appear to be good, they are the ones who seem to be setting the rules…again…. –Dave (GoingRvWay.com)
Yeah, no doubt Google favors their own. Mobile is becoming big though so I guess it makes sense that blogs should adapt too. It’s certainly a pain keeping up with all of Google’s changing rules.
Nina
This will be my first reply to any blog or email. I am lost and trying to find my way. We will hit the road in about two years. We will pin it down to a date in early 2017. We will probably start a blog at that time, so all news is good news as far as I am concerned. I just wanted you to know we enjoy everything that is posted in your blogs and will follow as we prepare to retire and strike out on our own adventures. The information you have posted thus far is invaluable to us. That God we love each other, nature and the open road.
Sounds like you’re ready for the road! Good luck w/ all your plans. Happy to have you along for the ride here in the meantime.
Nina
WOW!!!!! Nice new blog !!!! Great job !!! Love reading your blog but never took the time to tell you.
Thank for a wonderful read !!!!
Colleen
Thanks Colleen,
You’re the first one to notice 🙂 I just uploaded the new theme today so I’m still playing around with it. Hopefully it works for everyone.
Nina