Kleinburg Brewery
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In case you haven’t heard, Google is planning to unveil a mobile-friendly update on April 21 that could impact websites all over the net. So what does this mean for your website, or more precisely, your business?
How Google’s New Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Could Impact Your Website
It’s no secret that websites that are mobile-optimized rank higher than non-optimized sites, even on desktop computers. But until now, this factor in ranking has been limited. No one is entirely sure yet what things Google actually considers when it calculates mobile rankings. This is why many businesses have simply avoided optimizing their websites for mobile devices up until now.
But this could all change by April 21st.
How Your Site’s Rankings Could be Affected
Members of Google’s Webmaster Trends team say that the new upcoming changes will be bigger than the Panda and Penguin updates of the recent past. Considering the major impact these previous updates had on millions of websites, an effect on your website can’t really be ruled out.
While we might know that the mobile-friendly algorithm will change the way the search engine giant judges the mobile-friendliness of websites, we still haven’t been informed about what new factors will be added, and how these factors will affect a website’s search visibility. Given what Google has already said, it’s safe to assume that most non-mobile-optimized sites on the web might see dramatic reductions in search visibility.
In all honesty, in this day and age of mobile devices seemingly taking over the world, your site should already be mobile friendly. Consider the fact that over 60% of all Google searches are now being done on mobile devices.
It therefore makes sense that Google would want to take advantage of this traffic, and improve the experience of its users. If your site is not yet optimized for mobile devices, you should get in touch with your web designer to have these vital updates made. Businesses who cater the most to mobile users will probably gain the most visibility from Google.
The Bottom Line
While this upcoming update is certainly going to be a biggie, it probably won’t be the last mobile-related algorithm change we’ll be seeing. If you don’t have a mobile version of your website, you could be sacrificing on search visibility. If Google wants its mobile users to be satisfied, you’ll need to get on the task of making your website mobile friendly.