There’s even more reason to invest in a mobile-friendly website right now. From the start of May, Google will be rolling out an update to the mobile search algorithm to give higher rankings to mobile-friendly and responsive websites.
The first push to increase results for mobile-friendly website launched back in April 2015, and aims to give a better experience for anyone searching via their smartphone. Many businesses already see between 40-60% of their website traffic coming from mobile searches, and that will only increase with the new push for promotion, which will increase the effect of the mobile-friendly ranking signal.
If you haven’t updated your site to be mobile-friendly, then there’s still time. A responsive design will automatically adapt to be suitable for whichever device is accessing it – desktop computer, tablet or smartphone – and it means you only have to maintain one website to reach everyone. The update to the mobile-friendly algorithm will be rolled out gradually on a page-by-page basis, so the effect will be seen over the coming weeks and months, rather than an immediate drop.
If you’re not sure about your current website, then you can check quickly via the Google Mobile-Friendly Test.
Why Mobile-Friendly Websites Are Vital:
Smartphones are now the most-used device to connect to the internet in the UK, with around two thirds of UK adults owning at least one. On average, a smartphone owner will spend almost two hours per day browsing the internet on their phone, including for tasks like banking, shopping and booking appointments.
It’s also the first device people are likely to grab when looking for a business in a hurry, or if they’re not near a computer. Which means it is often a very direct link between searching for a local business on a phone and visiting or making a purchase almost immediately.
And while it’s possible to view a non-mobile-friendly website on a phone, it’s generally a very negative experience. While customers say that they don’t trust a business which doesn’t have a website, they trust one which offers a terrible experience even less – and that’s exactly what happens when they have to scroll for ages across something designed for a desktop computer, and which doesn’t allow them to quickly and easily find what they want or get in contact.
In simple terms, the longer you put off the relatively low cost of a mobile-friendly website, the more it’s likely to cost your business in the meantime. And once customers have found a competitor which they can use on their phone, you might have lost the chance to ever win them back.
