Perhaps you heard about Google’s search algorithm update last week. Google, a company that has been hinting for some time now that marketers should take steps to make their websites mobile-friendly, finally gave their mobile-friendly advice some teeth. The reaction was not entirely unexpected:
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes! The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!
Incidentally, Google refers to their algorithm change by the much happier and positive-sounding name, “Mobile Friendly Update.”
So why does Google care if your website is mobile-friendly or not? It’s simple. They want to continue to dominate in the search engine and, thus, the search advertising business. And to do that, they have to deliver the best web pages to their users for any given search. If you happen to be searching Google from a smart phone, you certainly don’t want them to send you to a website that loads slowly, has unreadable type and content that doesn’t display on your mobile device. From Google’s perspective, that’s more than just a hassle ‚Ä쬆it’s a failure that could lead their users to switch to another search engine.
Is it the end of the world for your website? Maybe not. But, if your website isn’t optimized for smart phones and tablets, there’s a good chance that you’ll start seeing significantly less traffic.
Our advice? First, don’t panic. Your website may be more mobile-friendly than you realize, and it’s super-easy to find out. All you have to do is go to Google’s Mobile Friendly Test page and plug in your website address. They’ll let you know if your website is affected by the new algorithm and even give you the reasons why.
Now if it turns out that your website is not mobile friendly, it would be a good idea to find someone to update your website using the latest responsive design techniques so that you can offer a great user experience to everyone, regardless of their device or screen width. Just so happens, we know a few people who are really good at doing exactly that.
So who ya gonna call?