How many times have you been with friends or family and had to break away with “I’ll Google it…” mid-conversation?
The world has gone mobile. It’s a fact that more people are now using their phones or tablets to search online. More people are on Social Media than ever before – which for many means being connected to friends, family and colleagues at the swipe of a touch-screen.
The impact of mobile use on how websites appear to the user is staggering. Now, it’s clear that Google is changing its thinking to mirror mobile trends – by ensuring websites are ‘mobile friendly’ above anything else.
Google’s extensive checklist already looks at how well your website appears on mobile devices. It looks at how user-friendly it is, right down to the sizes of important buttons – and how well an average sized finger can navigate it.
But soon, Google will look for your website’s mobile version first – knowing full-well that most of your potential customers may be looking for you on their phones.
And it is really frustrating when you come across a website that you have to zoom in on. It’s just not cool.
Doantam Phan, Product Manager at Google, said: “Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results.”
This is huge news – particularly for SMEs that may not have the big budget for a new mobile-friendly website. Thankfully, this change isn’t expected to happen instantly.
Google does want you to start preparing and getting a plan in place to make sure your website gets all the relevant ticks from the Google gods when the algorithm starts to shift.
What do I do if my website isn’t mobile friendly?
Let’s be honest here, your website is your most valuable digital asset – and in this ever-evolving digital world, you need to make sure it is the best it can be.
If you leave your website as it is now, without it being mobile friendly, it will most likely get moved down search engine results once the algorithms change. This means you become less visible to your customers, and, prospective customers.
Investing in a fully responsive website now is the safest way to ensure your brand isn’t affected negatively.
This isn’t about money grabbing web developers trying to squeeze more money out of small business owners – this is about Google making the internet a fair and great experience for everyone.
If you want to know more about our cost-effective, responsive web development, get in touch with us now.
