So far, it’s gone by a number of names: Mobilegeddon. Mopacalypse. Doesn’t matter what it’s called; This is the one that will hurt your business if you are not ready for it.
On April 21 of this year, Google will update its algorithm that determines where websites rank, deciding that if your website is not “mobile ready,” then it will drop you from its mobile search rankings. The search giant will unroll it over the course of the week, and sites that don’t meet its standards will drop precipitously in the rankings.
What does mobile ready mean? In short, if you have to pinch or zoom on your website to see it’s content on a mobile phone, if the text size is really small, or if links to other pages are too close together or too small for ‘fat thumbs’, then your site is not mobile ready and will need to change in order to make it so.
These people are hungry, so they are going to eat somewhere nearby. They’ll just choose a competitor. That’s a lot of lost revenue for a customer base you built your business to serve.
You may think, “so what?”, but here’s why you should care. Practically speaking, let’s say you had a restaurant on Philadelphia’s Main Line in Suburban Square shopping center. Shoppers will undoubtedly get hungry after shopping, and on their iPhone will Google “Restaurant in Suburban Square.” If your website is not what Google deems to be “mobile friendly” then you may not ( they want you to believe will not ) show up in their search ahead of mobile friendly sites.
These people are hungry, so they are going to eat somewhere nearby. They’ll just choose a competitor. That’s a lot of lost revenue for a customer base you built your business to serve.
This goes for any business. Search is moving away from the desktop and onto mobile phones in every industry. Restaurants, in particular. Because Google wants to return local businesses in it’s search results, but not at the expense of the user’s experience. Again, if they have to pinch or zoom your website in their mobile device, then it’s not mobile friendly and it will be ‘penalized.’
HOW DO I KNOW IF MY SITE IS MOBILE FRIENDLY?
Google has to separate tests that go into some detail about this. The first, the Mobile Friendly Test, is a simple Yes/No mobile evaluation. The second, it’s Page Speed Insights, goes into more depth and is something you should also take seriously. Slow websites make for a bad user experience in Google’s eyes because it makes the user wait on information Google prides itself so highly on giving it’s customers.
Even if your site is deemed “mobile friendly” because you use a plugin like Duda Mobile, now would be as good a time as any to redesign your website using responsive design. Don’t know if you noticed, but when you view a website on your phone, the url ( your website address ) is different than it is on the desktop version. The information is different, too. Most people who know SEO will tell you to fix this dual URL problem as soon as possible. That’s just one of the problems a plugin like that represents.
All this said, I can help. Contact me if you have questions as to whether or not your site is mobile friendly and what your options are to fix it if it is not.