If your website is not mobile-friendly, be ready for search rankings to suffer

by | Mar 27, 2015 | Digital Marketing Tips, Website Design, Website SEO

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Google has announced big changes to their search algorithms (that complicated formula that return website links when users ‘Google’ something) and they take effect April 21, 2015.

If your website is not mobile-friendly according to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test then chances are your site is not going to get returned in a search performed on a mobile device.  Google can detect what type of device users are searching with, so if you are searching from your home computer….you should still get the same type of search results after the update.  This update is targeted at searches from mobile devices like smartphones, kindles, iPads and other tablets.

Today if you search for something like “Angus Bulls Michigan” you will get this type of results on a desktop computer:

desktop angus bulls michigan search

 

And if you do the exact same search on a smart phone you should see results like this:

mobile angus bulls michigan google search

 

The difference is that gray tag Google adds to the sites that are “Mobile-friendly”. This feature has been in place for several months; but starting April 21, 2015 if your website is not mobile-friendly, your mobile search ranking will suffer…you could be booted off this first page completely.

There could also be a trickle down effect that many business owners might not realize.  One of the many factors that is built into Google’s Search Algorithms is site traffic. If you think about how much traffic you get from desktop vs. mobile devices; you could see a significant drop in site visits. Over time this could lower your rankings on traditional searches from desktop computers.

For existing customers of RVWS, pay close attention to the next Google Analytics Report that we send you.  Do you know how much traffic you are getting from mobile devices? This pie chart shows an example of device traffic data – almost 45% of their traffic was from mobile devices. This clients does not have a mobile friendly website! They are going to see a drop in traffic from this upcoming Google Algorithm Update.

 

Mobile Device Type GA Pie Chart

 

Even if you are not getting a substantial amount of traffic from mobile devices as of today, I would encourage you to consider these mobile statistics:

  • Among U.S. adults, 22.9% of all media time in 2014 was spent on mobile
  • Mobile searches (roughly 85.9 billion) will surpass desktop searches in 2015
  • 57% of the United States owns a smartphone
  • 81% of conversions from mobile search happen within five hours of the search

Acknowledge the trends in the marketplace and set yourself up for success. Regardless if you have significant mobile device traffic accounting for your site visits, it is critical for you to act for the long-term success of your business website.

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