Google recently changed the way it prioritizes its search results for mobile users.
As of May 2015, websites that are not mobile compatible will no longer be shown on the first page of search results for mobile users. Conversely, Google has started to prioritize mobile compatible websites for all mobile searches.
Does your Website have Mobile Traffic?
There have been many studies this past year on how much of a website’s traffic is from mobile users (e.g. smartphones, tablets, etc.). All studies agree that the percentage of mobile users continues to steadily increase and will continue to do so into the future.
We analyzed traffic of a random selection of client websites that we host and found that, on average, 45% of their website traffic is from users using a mobile device.
Some have asked, “What if my audience is desktop only? Then there’s no reason to have a mobile website, right?” Google’s response is: “Not exactly. Statistics show that more people are going mobile only — either because they never had a desktop or because they won’t replace their existing desktop. Additionally, a non-mobile-friendly site may not see many mobile visitors precisely for that reason.”
So yes, this probably affects your website traffic significantly.
Why is This Being Done?
Google realizes that mobile users have a negative experience when they search for a website, click on it, but then aren’t able to navigate or view its content because it isn’t mobile-compatible.
Therefore, Google is pushing all non-mobile-compatible websites lower in its search results listings for mobile users, leaving the mobile compatible websites at the top of search results.
Is your Website Being Penalized or Boosted?
A growing segment of online users will have a difficult time searching for websites if those websites are not mobile compatible, probably finding a mobile-compatible competitor instead.
There are two ways to determine if your website is mobile compatible:
- For Bongo4U websites, login to the admin area, click Dashboard, find the “Mobile Support” option that will be either “Yes” or “No”. If No, contact Emerge2 about converting your website to be mobile compatible.
- For non-Bongo4U websites, use Google’s mobile-friendly test tool.
Google has already rolled out these changes to its search engine algorithms. If you don’t want to limit your search engine traffic to the shrinking desktop-only audience, then it’s important to ensure that your website is mobile compatible, and to do it soon.
