It’s Been Coming for Awhile, but Now Google Is Factoring a Site’s Mobile Friendliness in Search Engine Results (SERPs)

Keeping up with what’s going on in the SEO world is crazy. One factor that’s been growing is whether or not a site is mobile friendly. Well, if you’ve avoided making your business’ website mobile, time is running out. As of April 21st, Google will now prominently give preferential treatment to sites that are mobile friendly. Nope. You can’t ignore how your website displays on a mobile device any longer. Times ticking….

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts like me have seen this coming for a while. It was blatantly obvious that Google was targeting and featuring mobile sites vs. sites that show up like crap on a mobile device was when it started showing the “Mobile-Friendly” note next to search engine results on mobile devices (like smartphones and tablets.) That was a HUGE red flag to me that time was running out for those business owners who have ignored mobile.

If you’ve been burying your head in the sand like an ostrich, you’re not alone. Most small and medium-sized businesses do not have a mobile-optimized website. Only 6% of SMBs have a mobile site, according to a 2014 study by Hibu. Six percent! It’s almost like you think this mobile thing is a silly trend that’s going to pass. It’s not. Mobile is here to stay — and it’s only going to get MORE important. Here are some stats that prove it:

• Half of the entire population of the US is checking their smartphones up to 150 times a day. (ExactTarget 2014 Mobile Behavior Support)
• Consumers choose search as their No. 1 in-store resource for helping them make purchase decisions. (ThriveAnalytics, April 2014)
• 78% of local-mobile searches result in offline purchases in a business. (comScore, Neustar Localeze, 15 miles, Local Search Study, April 2014)

Check to See if Your Website Is Mobile or Mobile Friendly

Not sure if your website is mobile friendly? My friend Google has a Google mobile web friendly tool so you can gauge your site’s “mobile-friendliness.” If you don’t know for sure if your website’s mobile friendly or not, I highly recommend you check — TODAY.

If you discover that your site is NOT mobile optimized, we can help. Contact us today and we can analyze your site and help you make your site mobile friendly. Most of the time this does involve a website redesign (and I’m not going to lie, it’ll cost you some $), but if you don’t have a mobile site, you can bet that a) your competitors do and b) you’ll lose business because your site can’t be viewed properly on a mobile device.

Let us help you…It will be all right 🙂