Do You Have A Mobile Friendly Website? If Not, Then You’re Already Losing Traffic
On April 21st of this year Google made a substantial change to the way that it ranks websites. Google’s ranking system determines where your website appears when users search for topics that are relevant to your business. Most people will only browse through one or two pages of search results. Ideally you want your website to appear as close to the first page as possible.
The new change applies to whether or not you have a mobile friendly website
Google now requires your website, landing pages and blog to be fully optimized for mobile devices, making it easier for users to find search results that are properly optimized for their device. This affects all mobile searches in all languages around the world.
The change isn’t surprising when you consider that most people currently use their mobile device to search the web. Although estimates vary by industry, companies with mobile-optimized sites generally triple their chances of increasing mobile traffic by 5% or more.
What does this mean for you?
If your website isn’t mobile ready then you aren’t going to rank well on Google. If you aren’t ranking well on Google then you are already losing visitors to your website.
You might be wondering why you should care how Google ranks you. While there are other search engines available, Google is the most popular entry point to the online world. Successful businesses understand how important it is to rank well on Google. The more successful a business’s online presence is, the higher it is ranked.
If any of your web content is not mobile-friendly, now is the time to make the switch. Because of the new algorithm, even the most popular websites will begin to see a dramatic decrease in visitors if they don’t become properly optimized for mobile.
So how can you fix it?
Google recognizes three different configurations as mobile friendly:
- Responsive design
- Dynamic serving
- Mobile websites
Responsive design is preferred as it doesn’t involve creating two separate websites for computer and mobile. Instead, responsive design is used to create one website that is able to adapt to whichever device it is being viewed on. This includes Apple’s iPhone and iPad, the Samsung Galaxy and other android phones and tablets.
Another method is dynamic serving. Dynamic serving keeps the same URL, but rather changes the HTML depending on the type of device being used. Lastly, you can create an entirely separate mobile website that viewers can click to enter from another non-mobile website. Although creating a completely separate mobile website isn’t ideal, it still works with Google’s new requirements.
If your website isn’t mobile friendly then you are losing traffic and potential clients. Alter Impact has over fourteen years of experience creating high quality, optimized websites. Contact us today to see how we can help!
Check back next week when we discuss the speed of your mobile website and how it affects your Google ranking.
