As of 21 April 2015 your website will rank lower in Google search results if it is not optimised to be mobile-friendly, the Internet giant has announced.
Google’s mobile ranking factors will now not only label your website as mobile-friendly on its search engine results pages, but will have a significant impact on where your site ranks in search results – with your site being pushed down the rankings by rival mobile-friendly websites if it’s not up to scratch.
Google has said this new development is an expansion of its mobile ranking demotion algorithm.
What this means for your business, put simply, is that if your website isn’t optimised for mobile – that’s if it doesn’t have a mobile version and/or isn’t responsive – you’ll be outperformed by your business and keyword competitors.
You can test how mobile-friendly your website is here
The good news though is that even with little time left before Google rolls out this latest change, the new algorithm works in real time. This means that if you are late to the party, putting plans into place now to start developing your website into a mobile-friendly one will mean you can still reap the benefits of higher search engine results placements.
What you risk in ignoring this change or delaying your response is simple: you will be left behind by your competitors who have been quicker to adapt to an ever-changing digital environment where mobile usage is growing phenomenally.
In the year between August 2013 and August 2014 mobile internet usage grew by a staggering 67 per cent whilst desktop usage dropped by 17 per cent.
Google is trying to meet these changes in user behaviour by optimising its service into forcing companies to move with the zeitgeist and get on board with the mobile device trend.
It wants its search engine users to have content delivered to them in the best possible way: how they want it. In a statement about the new algorithm, Google said: “‘users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimised for their devices.”
So if you want to optimise your internet presence to meet with the needs of your customers and clients, you can no longer afford not to have a mobile-friendly website.
PRG are experts in helping businesses meet and converse with their online audiences in the way they want to be spoken to – which is to have content delivered to them that is optimised for whichever device they happen to be using at the time.
That’s what our web team do every time they develop a responsive and mobile-friendly website; we develop goal-orientated websites which are content-first, ensuring the best possible mobile user experience.
