Are you ready for the Google mobile change?
Google’s mobile-friendly ranking signal has been live since April 2015, when Google restructured how mobile searches are ranked to favour sites that work well on a phone. That shift proved permanent – mobile-friendliness is still one of the baseline checks Google runs before a page can rank at all. If your site has not been reviewed for mobile usability since it was built, that is the first thing worth checking today.
How Mobile Device Searches are Being Redefined
Under the new restructuring, searches being performed by mobile devices will return results that rank mobile-friendly websites first.
This will be impactful to business on the internet in two ways, the first being companies who are currently offering a mobile friendly web experience are likely to see a lovely boost in their mobile search rankings. On the other side of that coin are the companies who are not providing a mobile friendly website are looking at losing huge within the search rankings, or having their site disappear altogether. The new algorithm will make it completely imperative that businesses are assuring their website and online experience be translatable to mobile users.
Google believes these changes are necessary because trends are showing that in the past 12 months mobile device usage has grown considerably and now accounts for up to 50% of all traffic to websites, with even higher percentages presenting for websites in the shopping and hospitality industries.
The change in the algorithm will provide a great leg up for some large corporations already well established online with mobile friendly interfaces, and leave other smaller and less technology centred business directly because when Google rankings drop, so do website visits and when traffic slows it leads potential customers elsewhere.
How the Mobile Algorithm Changed Rankings From April 2015
Google gave businesses a fixed deadline, April 21, 2015, to make their sites mobile friendly before the new ranking method took effect.
Sites that passed the mobile-friendly check were rewarded with better visibility in mobile search results, and that same expectation has only grown stricter since, now that most searches happen on a phone rather than a desktop.
Help is Available to Transition
If you find yourself ill prepared, have no fear because we are ready to help take on the challenge. With a wealth of experience in knowing how to create responsive, accessible website designs, and with a secure knowledge in the world of SEO, we can help to get your company ready for the changes, and remain relevant to your target customers.
Get in touch if you’d like to discuss how these changes may impact your business!
