[Viewpoint] Big Online Changes for Everyone, Not Just PCT

Recently my college roommate posted a link to an article titled “37 Things You’ll Only Understand If You Went To College In The ’90s.” As a graduate of Ohio University in 1997, I am an ideal candidate for remembering all the things on this list (although we did not have a “Pulp Fiction” poster on our wall).

The first item on the list was “You got your first email address in college.” Yep, that was me. I think we received email addresses halfway through my college career, which would mean I’ve had an email address for about 20 years. And to think — in that brief amount of time we’ve gone from adopting email, to using laptops, to handling almost everything we do in life via our phones. That’s an amazingly short amount of time to go from first hearing of the Internet to having it at your fingertips 24/7.

And change happens faster all the time. In late 2014, Google posted the following on its Webmaster Central Blog: “Have you ever tapped on a Google Search result on your mobile phone, only to find yourself looking at a page where the text was too small, the links were tiny and you had to scroll sideways to see all the content? This usually happens when the website has not been optimized to be viewed on a mobile phone.”

We’ve all been there. You search for something on your phone or tablet and what comes up is tiny type, the content is wider than the screen or the site uses incompatible plug-ins. So the search engine set its sights on encouraging websites to integrate mobile-friendly characteristics in order to advance them on their results pages. To quote Google, “A page is eligible for the ‘mobile-friendly’ label if it meets the following criteria as detected by Googlebot:

• Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash;
• Uses text that is readable without zooming;
• Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom;
• Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped.”
   

Many pest control firms have made changes, or are in the process of adjusting their websites, to fit this criteria. After all, it’s key to appearing as high up on Google’s result pages as possible. And just like you want your companies to do well in a Google search, so does PCT.

Last month we launched a redesigned www.pctonline.com. While we implemented mobile optimization into our changes (all articles, multimedia files and other resources have been standardized in a format that is easy to access and will function properly on most mobile devices), we also incorporated a host of other enhancements, including:

• Enhanced News Coverage. The new website features expanded news coverage accompanied by bigger and higher-quality photos and graphics.
• Improved Search Engine. PMPs now can access past news articles, product releases, feature stories, podcasts, webinars, and other valuable PCT content quickly and easily, with an “endless scrolling” feature designed to enhance the user experience.
• Videos/Podcasts. Our staff regularly conducts video interviews with PCOs, technical experts, researchers and others. We also make available videos, TV commercials, educational resources and other footage. Additionally, we record industry-specific podcasts, which are available on our website and also can be downloaded onto most mobile devices.
   

Please see the feature article on page 26 for a detailed description about some of the changes to our site. And let us know how your website changes are going. We’d love to know so we can share your successes with others in the industry. Not sure where to start? To test to see if your company’s site is mobile friendly, visit http://bit.ly/1vmcUtU. And for a list of frequently asked questions about Google’s changes, visit http://bit.ly/1bqno4b.

Although it’s hard work and requires you to be on top of such technology trends, most people don’t want to go back to pre-smartphone days. In fact, just like the “college in the ’90s” list said, since my peers and I didn’t have cell phones, “…making plans was…interesting. HOW DID WE EVER GET ANYWHERE?!” Maybe just for fun Dan Moreland, Brad Harbison and I should go back to leaving messages on dry-erase boards...

Jodi Dorsch is editor of PCT magazine.