Skip to content
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Bluesky
  • Discord
  • X
  • Instagram
  • RSS
Essex Ham Logo

Essex Ham

Supporting Amateur Radio in Essex

  • Home
  • Get Started
    • What is Amateur Radio?
    • Become a Ham
    • Amateur Radio Explained
    • Guide for Parents
    • Amateur Radio Books
    • Common Questions
  • Advice
    • How to Become a Ham
    • Passed? Get Your Licence
    • Just Got Your Licence?
    • Your First Handheld
    • Your First Station
    • Getting Started Guides
    • Returning to the Hobby
    • Getting Started with Data
    • Downloads & Handouts
    • Your Questions (FAQ)
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
      • Calendar View
      • Poster View
      • Upcoming Field Events
      • Upcoming Training
      • Essex Field Events This Year
      • Upcoming Local Rallies
    • Next Essex Ham Events
    • Club Events List
    • Recent Events in Essex
    • Essex 2m Activity Days
    • Annual Event List
    • Latest News & Articles
  • Training
    • How to Get Started
    • Foundation Online Course
    • Training Courses in Essex
    • Other Online Courses
    • Training Videos
    • Training Material
    • Training Information
    • Essex Training Calendar
    • For Tutors
  • Clubs
    • Support for Clubs
    • Clubs in Essex
    • Resources & Downloads
    • Training Material
    • Promotional Videos
    • Essex Speakers Directory
  • Members
    • Join our Community
      • Join Essex Ham (free)
      • Essex Ham Members FAQ
    • Forum
    • Live Chatroom
    • Merchandise
    • Recommended Kit
    • Members-Only
      • Members-Only Area
      • Member Main Page
      • Your Member Profile
      • Email Alerts
      • Essex Ham Newsletter
      • Email Discussion Group
  • About Us
    • What is Essex Ham?
    • Latest News & Articles
    • Forum
    • Videos
    • Internet Radio Stream
    • Podcast
    • Live Weather
    • Essex Ham APRS iGate
    • Essex Ham Meshtastic
    • Essex Ham Newsletter
    • Essex Activity Map
    • About Our Site
  • Net
    • Monday Night Net Info
    • Monday Net Chatroom
    • Monday Net Reports
    • Young Ladies Net
    • Live Audio Feed
    • Danbury Repeater GB3DA
    • Other Nets in Essex
    • Repeaters in Essex
  • Contact/Chat
    • Forum
    • Email Discussion Group
    • Need some help?
    • Contact The Team
    • Our Facebook Group
    • Discussion Group List

Google Shakeup & Amateur Radio Clubs

Posted on 21 April 201522 April 2015 By Pete M0PSX 8 Comments on Google Shakeup & Amateur Radio Clubs

Google Friendly RSGB SiteToday, the 21st of April 2015, sees a significant change taking place under the hood of the Google search engine. The results that you see when searching with Google will change to favour sites that are optimised for use on mobile devices.

Google is doing this to offer a better experience for those using mobile devices, and is being billed as a significant change (Source: Google Webmaster Central) – According to Google, around 50% of searches come from mobile devices, hence this is an important move for Google.

On this page, we take a quick look at how these changes may impact amateur radio websites, and how without action, some of our amateur radio club websites may be even harder to find after this change by Google.

Amateur Radio Websites

As someone who spends a lot of time accessing websites on mobile devices, it’s fair to say that sites not optimised for mobile, are a pain – unreadable text, issues with scrolling, troublesome image sizes. Amateur radio websites seem particularly unfriendly in many cases.Whilst sites like the RSGB are showing as friendly, other, such as QRZ.com, fail.

With the new changes being rolled out by Google, we’re likely to see some websites start slipping even further down the rankings, which is not great for the visibility of our hobby.

QRZ.com fails Google's new Mobile Friendly Test
QRZ.com fails Google’s new Mobile Friendly Test

Checking Your Website

Google has released an online tool to allow webmasters to check their mobile friendliness:
Google Mobile Friendly Test

Essex Amateur Radio Sites

We tested each website for the 18 clubs in Essex that run a website, on the morning of the Google switch – Well done to the following sites for being Mobile Friendly:

  • Essex Amateur Radio DX Group
  • Essex CW Club
  • Essex Ham
  • Harlow & District Amateur Radio Society
  • Havering & District Amateur Radio Club
  • Thurrock Acorns Amateur Radio Club

Of the top ten club sites in Essex (based on search rank and traffic), only three pass Google’s Mobile Friendly test – Here’s the results, sorted alphabetically:

Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society (CARS) Fail
Colchester Radio Amateurs (CRA) Fail
Dengie Hundred Amateur Radio Society (DHARS) Untestable
Essex Ham Pass
Harlow & District Amateur Radio Society (HADARS) Pass
Harwich Amateur Radio Interest Group (HARIG) Fail
Loughton & Epping Forest Amateur Radio Society (LEFARS) Fail
South Essex Amateur Radio Society (SEARS) Fail
Thurrock Acorns Amateur Radio Club (TAARC) Pass
Vange Amateur Radio Society (VARS) Fail

Reasons for the FAIL for many of the clubs in Essex include “Text too small to read”, “Links too close together”, “Content wider than screen” and “Mobile viewport not set”.

Combine this with other issues with club websites, such as poor attention to search engine visibility, page errors, and content issues (as highlighted recently on Charlie M0PZT’s Spurious Emissions blog), it’s clear why some club websites are struggling for traffic – and that’s likely to become even worse when today’s Google updates are rolled out. I’ll be watching the rankings carefully to keep track of the winners & losers!

Google Friendliness

Before the complaints roll in – this is not a finger-pointing exercise on our part, neither is this a competition – this is to highlight an issue affecting many of the UK’s ham radio websites and to encourage local clubs to think more about the online visibility of their clubs and the hobby in general.

Amateur radio club sites typically serve a small audience and get low traffic – so to  ensure that amateur radio gets the maximum exposure possible, it’s important that amateur radio sites can be found when searched. With so many of the youngsters we’re desperate to get into the hobby glued to smartphones and tablets, can we afford not to make sure that our sites are as accessible and visible as possible?

Written by Pete M0PSX (When not playing amateur radio, Pete is a website / SEO consultant)

Related Links

  • BBC News Website- Google Search Engine Changes
  • Google Webmaster Central – Mobile Friendly Search

Update

Thanks to @PeterOnion for asking: “How does this effect results returned to people on proper computers with sensible sized screens? I don’t care about /m friendly” – It seems that the changes only affect results on mobile devices, not on desktop searches… at least for the moment. With 50% of searches being done on mobiles, this is still a big issue though.

News Tags:Google, Websites

Post navigation

Previous Post: Maldon Park Activation Apr 2015
Next Post: RadCom May 2015 – Essex Amateurs

Comments (8) on “Google Shakeup & Amateur Radio Clubs”

  1. Michael says:
    21 April 2015 at 12:57

    May I ask how you’re getting your data to form the ranking of the top ten clubs in Essex please?

    Reply
    1. Pete M0PSX says:
      21 April 2015 at 13:18

      Sure – It’s a weighted value calculated from three metrics – global site ranking, SERP and trust score.

      Not perfect, I know, but a mix of number of visitors, what Google thinks of it, plus how well other sites trust it, gives a good feel for how well a site is doing in a niche.

      Ping me a mail if you want the maths, or the stats for a specific site and I’ll show you my workings!

      Reply
  2. Graham G3ZOD says:
    22 April 2015 at 14:20

    It seems to me that making changes to a website to make it mobile-friendly can make it desktop-hostile too. I’ve seen one amateur radio website with a font size is so large that it is difficult to use on a desktop. The page says something along the lines of “if you find the font too large, configure your browser to reduce it”, but the webmaster doesn’t seem to understand that that will affect all websites viewed in the browser and not just theirs.
    I guess the real answer is to server different versions of the pages depending on what type of device is accessing it. Personally though, I have more than enough to do and feel this is a step further than I have time for, and for a website on shared hosting, I prefer to use static pages and I’m not keen on making all web pages on the site dynamic.
    73 de Graham G3ZOD http://fists.co.uk

    Reply
    1. Pete M0PSX says:
      22 April 2015 at 15:58

      Hi Graham,

      All valid, and this is very similar to the debates webmasters had years ago about make sites accessible to the visually-impaired… it can be a huge amount of work for little reward.

      To an extent, this particular change only affects clubs and amateur radio sites who care where they appear when searched in Google.

      You guys rank very well – for example “morse code clubs” brings up your site as the first result. If, for example, your site dropped in rankings from #1 to #11, that may cause a problem for getting people to find you.

      Admittedly, in general, amateur radio clubs exist to serve their members, and members know how to find a club’s site without needing to use Google. It may only be an issue for clubs keen to attract new members or generate leads for training courses – where if their site doesn’t appear close to the top of the Google results, they’ll not be found.

      Pete

      Reply
      1. Jeremiah Peschka says:
        25 April 2015 at 19:49

        I’ll add this, too – you don’t need to make your club’s site dynamic to get the advantages of a mobile style. It does, however, require using mobile aware techniques. The Bootstrap CSS framework (and many others) let you serve up one style sheet and one page (either static or dynamic) for desktop, tablet, and phones while not sacrificing readability and style. Check it out at http://getbootstrap.com/css/

        Is it a change to what you’re doing? Yes.

        Is it the worst thing ever? No.

        Reply
    2. David Kirkby G8WRB says:
      29 August 2015 at 20:39

      It is possible for the webmaster to serve up different content, based on the device. I’m no web design expert, but I have some CSS that will display differently on mobile, desktop and printers. In fact, they are all set up the same, so I’m not making use of it, since as someone else points out, it can be a lot of effort.

      If for example I look at this page, there is green down each side. If someone was to print the page, it would be sensible that the green was not printed, to save using up all their toner. So a “printer friendly” version would not display the green. (If I play with scamcers, which I sometimes do, I try to force them to print pages that use up all their ink!)

      I’m webmaster for the Dengie Hundred Amateur Radio Society (DHARS) http://www.dhars.org.uk/ and try to at least make sure all pages pass the W3C validation suite. FWIW, I write the pages in a text editor called “vi”, which some of you may know, as it has been around for 38~39 years.

      Dave

      Reply
  3. Graham G3ZOD says:
    23 April 2015 at 08:03

    Hi Pete.
    Many thanks for the insight in your original post and follow-up.
    It’s certainly a subject that requires consideration.
    I expect in due course my conscience will force me to try and do something about it; I guess with the reduced interest in amateur radio in current times, we can’t really afford to risk missing anyone with potential interest.
    73 de Graham G3ZOD

    Reply
  4. Dr. David Kirkby G8WRB says:
    1 September 2015 at 10:16

    I’m puzzled why the Dengie Hundred Amateur Radio Society (DHARS) web site was untestable. But I would welcome comments about the site http://www.dhars.org.uk/

    Dr. David Kirkby G8WRB
    (Chairman and webmaster of DHARS)

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Member Login (Join Essex Ham!)
Remember me




Need help logging in?

Essex Ham Newslettter:

Looking for general updates on amateur radio? Join our free newsletter:

Recent Essex Ham Posts

  • St George’s Day 2025 Activation
  • RSGB AGM – Saturday 11 April 2025
  • Getting a Licence – We need to do better!
  • Ofcom Licence Exemptions Consultation 2025
Callsign:

Upcoming Local Events

  • LEFARS: Lambourne End Field Event on 17 May 2025 08:00
  • BADARS: 50th Birthday Party on 17 May 2025 10:00
  • Monday Night Net on 19 May 2025 20:00
  • Dunstable Downs (Luton) Rally 2025 (Date TBC) on 25 May 2025 10:00
Essex Ham recommends:

Realtek USB SDR

  • Getting started? Baofeng UV-5R 2m/70cm handheld: £30
  • Listen to the bands on your computer: USB Software Defined Radio Dongle: £10 (More)
  • Meshtastic Networking: Meshtasic Heltec V3 (More)

Heltec Meshtashic
More Recommendations

Recent Forum Discussion

PaulMiller started Baofeng GT3TP 22 hours ago Hello wonderful people. A few years ago I bought two baofengs and (I can’...
Pier started Suggestion request on Lei... 1 day ago Hi All, does someone have experience with a Leixen vv-898sp + battery set i...
EA1EXE started FlexRadio FLEX-6300 1 month ago FlexRadio FLEX-6300 with Antenna Tuning Unit and dust coverasking price : I...

Recent Comments

  • Gary Hayes on RSGB AGM – Saturday 11 April 2025
  • M5AKA on Ofcom Licence Exemptions Consultation 2025
  • M5AKA on Ofcom Licence Exemptions Consultation 2025

Show Your Support for Essex Ham

Free Training. Free Content. Free Help. No Membership Fees. Want to say thanks? PayPal or Coffee donations are always appreciated.
Make a donation

Copyright © 2011-2025 Essex Ham. Home | About This Site | Site Terms & Privacy | GDPR Statement >>

Powered by PressBook WordPress theme

This site uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalised ads or content, and analyze our traffic. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to our use of cookies, however you can select "Cookie Settings" to control your consent. View Terms & Privacy Policy
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
apbct_cookies_testsessionCleanTalk sets this cookie to prevent spam on comments and forms and act as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for the site.
apbct_headlesssessionCleantalk set this cookie to detect spam and improve the website's security.
apbct_page_hitssessionCleanTalk sets this cookie to prevent spam on comments and forms and act as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for the site.
apbct_prev_referersessionFunctional cookie placed by CleanTalk Spam Protect to store referring IDs and prevent unauthorized spam from being sent from the website.
apbct_site_landing_tssessionCleanTalk sets this cookie to prevent spam on comments and forms and act as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for the site.
apbct_site_referer3 daysThis cookie is placed by CleanTalk Spam Protect to prevent spam and to store the referrer page address which led the user to the website.
apbct_timestampsessionCleanTalk sets this cookie to prevent spam on comments and forms and act as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for the site.
apbct_urls3 daysThis cookie is placed by CleanTalk Spam Protect to prevent spam and to store the addresses (urls) visited on the website.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement1 yearSet by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
CookieLawInfoConsent1 yearRecords the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.
ct_checkjssessionCleanTalk–Used to prevent spam on our comments and forms and acts as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for this site.
ct_fkp_timestampsessionCleanTalk sets this cookie to prevent spam on the site's comments/forms, and to act as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for the site.
ct_has_scrolledsessionCleanTalk sets this cookie to store dynamic variables from the browser.
ct_pointer_datasessionCleanTalk sets this cookie to prevent spam on the site's comments/forms, and to act as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for the site.
ct_ps_timestampsessionCleanTalk sets this cookie to prevent spam on the site's comments/forms, and to act as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for the site.
ct_sfw_pass_key1 monthCleanTalk sets this cookie to prevent spam on comments and forms and act as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for the site.
ct_timezonesessionCleanTalk–Used to prevent spam on our comments and forms and acts as a complete anti-spam solution and firewall for this site.
sessionIdsessionThis cookie, set by Microsoft, is used by the website to store the user's session ID and is sent with each request to the ASP.NET application.
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
CookieDurationDescription
apbct_pixel_urlsessionCleanTalk set this cookie to provide spam protection.
__cf_bm30 minutesThis cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
CookieDurationDescription
_gat1 minuteThis cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. For details of this cookie, go to Google's Privacy & Terms site
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
CONSENT2 yearsYouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.
ct_screen_infosessionCleanTalk sets this cookie to complete an anti-spam solution and firewall for the website, preventing spam from appearing in comments and forms.
UID1 year 1 month 4 daysScorecard Research sets this cookie for browser behaviour research.
_ga1 year 1 month 4 daysThe _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. For details of this cookie, go to Google's Privacy & Terms site
_gat_gtag_UA_*1 minuteSet by Google to distinguish users. For details of this cookie, go to Google's Privacy & Terms site
_gid1 dayInstalled by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. For details of this cookie, go to Google's Privacy & Terms site
__gads1 year 24 daysThe __gads cookie, set by Google, is stored under DoubleClick domain and tracks the number of times users see an advert, measures the success of the campaign and calculates its revenue. This cookie can only be read from the domain they are set on and will not track any data while browsing through other sites. For details of this cookie, go to Google's Privacy & Terms site
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
DSID1 hourThis cookie is set by DoubleClick to note the user's specific user identity. It contains a hashed/encrypted unique ID.
ebaysessionThe domain of this cookie is owned by Ebay. This cookie is used for targeting and advertising purpose.
IDE1 year 24 daysGoogle DoubleClick IDE cookies are used to store information about how the user uses the website to present them with relevant ads and according to the user profile.
mc1 year 1 monthQuantserve sets the mc cookie to anonymously track user behaviour on the website.
test_cookie15 minutesThe test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE5 months 27 daysA cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
YSCsessionYSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devicesneverYouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-device-idneverYouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt.innertube::nextIdneverThis cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
yt.innertube::requestsneverThis cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
__gpi1 year 24 daysGoogle Ads Service uses this cookie to collect information about from multiple websites for retargeting ads. For details of this cookie, go to Google's Privacy & Terms site
__qcaneverThe __qca cookie is associated with Quantcast. This anonymous data helps us to better understand users' needs and customize the website accordingly.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
DEVICE_INFO5 months 27 daysNo description
dp12 yearsNo description available.
nonsession2 yearsNo description available.
rtid14 years 10 months 2 days 1 hourDescription unavailable.
ssessionNo description
slimstat_tracking_code1 monthNo description available.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo