What you must know about the New Yahoo Store Mobile Storefront

10 Apr 2015

Mike Patel

As you know, Google will be favoring mobile-friendly sites beginning on April 21^st.

In response, Yahoo has just released a mobile-friendly template to help you maintain your search ranking, in spite of the coming changes to Google’s search algorithm. (You can read more about the April 21^st change for Google search or about the benefits of having a mobile friendly site on our blog.)

I wanted to reach out to you today about the mobile-friendly template from Yahoo, in case you’ve been contacted by them. It’s great that Yahoo acted so quickly to provide a mobile-template before April 21^stto their merchants. This new mobile template is intended to meet Google’s mobile-friendly requirement so sites that use it, will be considered mobile-friendly by Google. However, there are some important things to keep in mind if you’re considering using this template:

1.Yahoo’s mobile storefront is template-based, not customized to your customers’ experience.

The whole idea behind going mobile-friendly is to cater to your customers’ experience on your site. If a customer accesses your site from their phone or a computer, you want them to find what they’re looking for and be able to purchase it easily. This template will help convince Google’s search algorithm that your site is mobile-friendly, but it may not provide the best user-experience for your customers.

2.Yahoo’s mobile storefront will only work for smartphones, not tablets like iPads.

A fully designed mobile-friendly site will work no matter where or how it’s accessed. Any mobile device will interact with a mobile-friendly site perfectly – whether it’s accessed from a desktop computer, a laptop, a smartphone or a tablet. Yahoo’s template will only work properly with smartphones and standard computers.

3.Yahoo’s mobile storefront does not extend to the checkout page.

With the template, a site will be easier to navigate from smartphones until the user decides to checkout. At that point, the checkout page will look like the full desktop version but on the small screen of a smartphone. The fields to fill out and the buttons to click will be difficult to use because they’re not configured for mobile use.

4.The mobile version will only show main categories, not subcategories from drop down menus.

The menus for this template have not been formatted to show sub-categories. So if you sell clothing, for example, and have a main category of sweaters, the sub-categories for men’s and women’s sweaters won’t appear in the mobile version.

5.This is a new template. It won’t convert your existing, custom design to be mobile friendly.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an option you can just choose and make your site immediately mobile-friendly. That takes custom-coding by a professional developer. But Yahoo has made this template available to put your site on, as a temporary fix to meet Google’s new search algorithm.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression. Yahoo’s Mobile Storefront is not a bad thing. It was a very swift response to a very important change coming to Google’s search rankings. If you want to move your store to this new template, please call me or email me ASAP and I will be happy to go over the specifics of what it takes.

I can also help you understand all your options for converting your site to be 100% mobile-friendly. Please call me ASAP to learn more about what it takes and how we can get this started for your business.

As always, if you have any questions, please email or call me anytime.

Mike Patel

Mike Patel is the Founder and CEO of ioVista, a leading digital commerce agency specializing in eCommerce solutions. With a strong background in business and technology, Mike Patel has been at the forefront of driving digital transformations for businesses. He has successfully navigated the ever-changing landscape of eCommerce, helping companies leverage the power of online platforms to grow their brand, increase revenues, and optimize their digital presence. Under his leadership, ioVista has become a trusted partner with major technology companies: Adobe/Magento, Google, BigCommerce, Shopify, and Yahoo. He is dedicated to staying ahead of industry trends, adopting cutting-edge technologies, and continuously improving strategies to provide clients with a competitive edge. Mike’s commitment to excellence and client satisfaction is evident in every project ioVista undertakes.