I can’t remember the last time a change in the web industry got this much hype. I have people who can’t even spell SEO asking me if I’ve heard about Google’s massive change coming to mobile search results. If you haven’t heard, Google is going to bury any site that doesn’t have a mobile-friendly version! Now before you panic, this is only partially true.

It is true that Google is going to penalize any site that doesn’t have a mobile-friendly version, but only in mobile search results, not desktop. This is bad news for anyone who depends on searches such as “coffee shops in Boston”, but if your site doesn’t get much mobile traffic you’re ok, sort of. Regardless of what Google does, it’s still important to have a mobile-friendly website. This doesn’t mean a fully responsive site, or a completely custom adaptive site, but at the very least your home page should be easy to read on mobile and have clear calls to action such as “Call Us” or “Request Info”.

If your site does depend on mobile search traffic and you don’t have a mobile-friendly site, you should definitely be panicking right now. Some studies have reported that up to 40% of top websites could be impacted. Google isn’t doing this to help web companies increase sales, they want mobile sites to load quickly and be easy to read. In other words, the old saying “content is king” and that design isn’t important no longer rings true. The user experience is just as important as content, and Google is saying that in a big way.

If you’re not sure if your site is mobile-friendly (if you don’t know, it probably isn’t), you can use Google’s free tool to check: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

If you need help converting your site into a mobile-friendly site we’d love to help you! You can either request a quote or call us at 617-206-1521 and we’ll help get your site to the top of the search rankings.