14 Apr Google’s Mobile Search Update is Coming… Are You Ready?
We are just one week away from Google’s Mobile Search Algorithm Update. This update is a warning for non-mobile friendly websites to make a significant upgrades or be penalized. In case you haven’t heard, on February 27th Google announced ,
“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.”
This being the case, you want to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly to ensure your ranking in mobile search is not penalized. Listen to our Podcast episode where our SEO experts discuss their predictions and expectations for the upcoming Mobile Search Update:
Reasons to be concerned:
- The percentage of mobile traffic has increased dramatically over the past few years with the rise in popularity of mobile devices such as tablets and larger smartphones.
- 1 in 3 searches on smartphone occur right before consumers visit a store or local business
- 42% of users have smartphones users who perform search on mobile usually transact in 1 day or less
- Some websites report that mobile traffic attributes to 20-50% of overall web traffic
- Older websites, that are not responsive for the mobile experience, will have a much higher bounce rate, lower time on site and lower conversion rates.
3 Ways You Can Prepare:
1. Assess your current website
Google offers a Mobile-Friendly Test Tool to give you an overview of your website’s mobile compatibility. You will want to check your most important web pages such as your home page, key landing pages, blog posts, archives, product pages and shopping carts.
This tool will also give you recommendations on how you can improve your site’s mobile experience for your viewers.
2. Upgrade to a responsive design
If your site is hosted on WordPress or another mainstream CMS, they make it simple and affordable to update to a responsive theme without throwing your site into complete chaos. Talk with your web developer to decide on a responsive design that works for you and act soon!
Check out Google’s Guide to Mobile-Friendly Websites.
3. Improve your site speed anyway you can
Google loves fast websites. The faster your pages load the more love they show you in the search results. To improve your site speed, speak with your web developer and see if you need to upgrade your hosting package to a higher plan.
You want your user’s mobile experience to be lightning fast. Check your website’s load speed here.
4. Let us help you
Not sure where to begin? Get our FREE SEO Assessment to understand how you rank for profitable terms and what you need to do to improve your results. We’ll evaluate the health of your website and identify what issues need to be addressed first.