March 25, 2015 / in Information Technology / by Jason Terry
Hi friends! It’s Jason with this week’s blog post.
I hope the title of this post got your attention. Because it should. It’s official. Google is going to start penalizing you in search engine results if your website isn’t mobile friendly.
Here’s a quote from Google’s blog that I think you should read… (for the whole blog post, click here.)
Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.
You may appear on the first or second page of Google search results today. Once Google changes their ranking system, it’s likely your position will drop if your site isn’t mobile friendly. If your competitors have a mobile friendly site, there is a good chance they’ll appear higher in the results than you do. Keep in mind, this is going to apply to searches done from a mobile device. That said, we typically see between 25% and 50% of traffic to our client sites done from a mobile device when reviewing Google Analytics reports.
I talked about this back in a blog post in February, but wanted to follow up now that it is official.
Have you gotten an email from Google like the one below?
Google is doing their best to let companies know there’s a problem before they make the changes to search rankings. If not, your website developer probably hasn’t hooked up Google Webmaster Tools for your site. (And if you’re a current website client, you haven’t gotten this because your site is already mobile friendly!)
If you didn’t test your site back in February when I first mentioned it, this is another reminder for you to do it. Simply click on this link, type in your website address and click Analyze. You’ll know in less than a minute where you stand.
If you need help getting a new site in place that’s mobile friendly, give me a call or shoot me an email!
Blue Gurus is an excellent company to work with.
We love our website. Jason did an excellent job and has provided many updates over the last few years.
Brad Justice
Co-founder and Principal, Team Office
