Google announced that on April 21, 2015, a new algorithm update will roll out, effectively sinking your mobile-unfriendly website’s rank in search results on tablet and mobile devices, giving priority to your mobile competitors. Your potential customers will not able to find you, which could equate to lost branding and revenue.
According to a June 23, 2014 report from comScore, smartphones and tablets are now combined to account for 60% of total digital media time spent, up from 50% a year ago. Since Google is in the game of giving its customers the best possible search engine experience, they are naturally moving toward making the mobile search engine experience the best it possibly can be.
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test has made checking your site’s mobile-friendliness easy. Simply open the page, enter your URL and click “Analyze.” Google will then check your site and report whether or not it’s mobile-friendly. If your site qualifies, the tool will also return a screenshot of how your site currently appears on mobile devices. But, just because your current design passes Google’s test, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t still ways for you to improve your site's rank, or things you’ll want to watch out for if you go through a website redesign in the future.
Is your site responsive? Responsive web design (RWD) is a setup where the server always sends the same HTML code to all devices and CSS is used to alter the rendering of the page on the device.” This means the website is actually giving the browser instructions on how to size and scale the website based on the device it's being viewed on.
The bottom line is to not take this news lightly. Mobile and tablet usage will continue to rise, and therefore Google will pursue algorithm updates to favor websites that work properly on these devices. Get your site fixed now or suffer the consequences of potentially losing business in the near future.
What does your website definitely need? Click below for 25 website must haves!
