Search engine giants Google will be rolling out a major SEO update this April (next month!) that will see mobile-friendly sites rank higher than those that aren’t designed for mobile.
It’s thought that small businesses will be affected the most, with leading SEO experts suggesting they could lose up to 30% of their traffic if their websites aren’t responsive.
How will the new SEO update work?
When someone using their phone or tablet searches for something related to your business, and if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s likely that your search result will be pushed down Google’s rankings.
At this stage, it doesn’t look like desktop versions of websites will be affected. Ie, if someone is searching on a desktop, even if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, your Google ranking should remain the same.
Obviously the best outcome would be that both desktop and mobile search results benefit your business. This could mean updating your website entirely to ensure it’s mobile (and desktop) friendly.
So, is your website mobile-friendly?
One of the quickest ways to tell if a website is mobile-friendly is by its responsiveness. By this, we mean your website should re-jig itself when the screen resolution is changed. Simply minimize your browser whilst on your website, and if the website re-orders itself to leave no horizontal scrolling, it’s responsive. If your website stays exactly the same and requires you to scroll horizontally to view the menu, then it’s not responsive and not mobile friendly.
If you’re still not sure if your website is mobile-friendly, Google have their very own free mobile-friendly test. Pop your URL into the box and see what the big guys at Google have to say about your website.
I don’t think my website is mobile-friendly, what do I do?
Don’t panic! It’s fairly simple to create mobile-friendly websites, and us tech folk at Terra Ferma specialise in mobile-friendly WordPress websites. In fact, every website we’ve ever created has been responsive and mobile-friendly. For us, it’s a no-brainer to optimise our websites for mobile devices.
Take a look at our work here and get in touch if we can help you with anything, big or small!