Can Having No Mobile Website Get You Kicked Off Google?
Arthur Cronos
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For the last four years, Google has become increasingly strident in issuing a new dictate to webmasters around the world --
"Make your website attractive to people using mobile devices."
As early as 2012, the increasing growth rate of mobile devices has been obvious, and Google saw the change coming. Remember, Google's business model is to sell ads, and to do that Google wishes to capture viewers on pages that it owns and controls, such as Google search, Gmail, YouTube, Google Dr., Google docs, Google maps, and many other online properties.
The more people look at these "free services" webpages that are provided by Google, the more ads Google can serve up on these "free services" webpages. The more ads Google can serve up, the more people click on those ads, and the more billions Google makes.
Google's core service -- search engine results -- therefore has the imperative to make searchers happy with the results. As long as Google succeeds in making searchers happy, searchers return to Google over and over and over again, Google serves up ads again and again and again, and Google makes more billions.
Now that more than half of all Internet searches are made on mobile devices, it has become an issue for Google if your website does not display nicely on a mobile device. If your website looks like crud to the searcher, the searcher isn't happy. When the searcher isn't happy, Google isn't happy.
Therefore, Google would like to make all searchers happy when they look at your website and therefore by golly you are going to do it the way Google wants. Or else. In other words, if you want your website to be seen by searchers, as of April 21, 2015, then your website had better look good on a mobile device.
End of story.
Mobile Devices
Fully 25% of all Internet visitors now only use a mobile device to access the Internet. (That is 25% of all humans, therefore 25% of your client base.) And by mobile devices, we mean iPads and other tablet computers that can slip easily into a purse or briefcase, and we mean cell phones.
A standard website, when displayed on a cell phone, looks like crud. The type is too small to read. A lot of scrolling and wiggling around is required to navigate from one page to another. Even finding the navigation buttons can be a challenge, when it's a standard website displayed on a cell phone.
When using either a second, specially constructed small website (called a mobile site) or using what is called "responsive web design," this alternative form of website displays nicely on a cell phone, and iPad, or tablet computer.
Google wants every website to display nicely on a normal desktop computer, or on a mobile device. Mobile usability has been one of Google's ranking factors for some time, but now Google is taking it to the next level.
The "Mobilgeddon" Google Update
Google made approximately 500 algorithm changes last year, and as of April 21, 2015, Google is getting tough about mobile sites. Tough with you, tough with me, tough with everybody. No exceptions. Get in line. Or else.
"Starting April 21," said Google recently, "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."
In plain and blunt language, if your website is not mobile friendly, Google is going to lower your ranking, which in many cases will remove you from page one, which is the only useful page to be on. And for all we know, perhaps Google will simply not show non-mobile-optimized websites at all.
Since half of all visits to websites are done on mobile devices, this is a big deal.
Insidious and Sneaky
Unfortunately, for most business-owners, you'll never know what happened to you.
Most likely when you check to see how your site ranks -- using your office computer -- it probably already ranks lower than it should because Google has known you didn't have a mobile-optimized site for the last couple of years -- but you may not see any further slide ... because you're using your office computer.
This means that ... YOU may not see the problem. But half the people searching are using mobile devices. And these people will probably no longer see your website at all."
So all you will know is ... you're getting half the calls you used to.
Would that be a problem?
What To Do
"Here's what you should do, and do quickly, so as to prevent drastic and dramatic banishment from page one, or a degraded position: Upgrade your website as quickly as possible to a mobile-friendly website."
The QUICKEST way to do that is to contact your web developer and get them on the job to build a small, separate mobile website. A small piece of code on your main website will identify any visitors using mobile devices and will redirect them to the small, separate mobile website. Visitors happy, Google happy, you happy.
But the BEST way to do that is to contact your web developer and get them on the job to rebuild your website as a "responsive design" website. This is a website whose various pictures and paragraphs unfold and refold, so as to display nicely on any size of computer screen. Looks good on a desktop, looks good on a tablet, looks good on a cell phone.
Want to see the difference? Here are two of our websites. One we've set up with a small, separate mobile website. View this on your cellphone: https://voltos.com. And now our second website, built with responsive design. View this on your cellphone: https://medfordseo.com.
No web designer to help you? Contact us. We can help you.
Benefits of Having a Mobile-Friendly Website
- Your website will not suffer any Google ranking loss after the "Mobilegeddon" algorithm change.
- Your website is likely to get better Google rankings after Mobilegeddon, because your competitors in many cases will not optimize their websites.
- Visitors to your website who are using mobile devices will have a good user experience. This tends to correlate with increased time spent on your site, and increased follow-through to become paying clients.
Better rankings, more clients, more revenue
At the same time that you are creating better rankings, more clients, and more revenue for your business… You are making Google happy, because these searchers are having a better time of it, which furthers Google's business plan of having them return frequently, and showing more advertisements.
Everybody happy.
Do These Mobile Websites REALLY Matter?
Yeah, they do. Although Internet giants like Amazon and the New York Times are now attempting to push users into custom apps, if you think about, a tiny version of your website which displays nicely on your clients cell phone… Actually, that's an app, right?
From a research study done by SimilarWeb in November 2014, on Google 48% of all traffic came from mobile devices (June through November). However as of November 2014, mobile traffic surpassed the number of visits from a desktop.
We are past the tipping point. That is what has changed.
Techie Talk
Here's what Google says – "Google recommends webmasters follow the industry best practice of using responsive web design, namely serving the same HTML for all devices and only using CSS media queries to decide the rendering on each device."
They are here recommending responsive web design specifically as the way to go for now and the future. That's why responsive web design as a solution is a better solution than building a small, separate website for mobile devices. However, for the short-term, in order to get this problem handled right away, the construction of a small, separate website for mobile devices attains most of the benefit, quickly.
What To Do Next
Contact your web designer. Explain that you want the SEO benefits, the enhanced visitor navigation and site experience benefits, and that you want either an upgrade to a responsive design website (best solution), or you want the addition of a smaller, separate, mobile-friendly website (quick solution).
If you do not have a web designer, or you cannot obtain this essential upgrade to your website, I invite you to contact Medford SEO at https://medforwardSEO.com.
We can fix this for you.
How to contact us ... You may call our office at:
(541) 201-2003
You may book yourself an appointment on our client-scheduling calendar at:
https://voltos.us/SUPPORTMEETING
Or to learn more about how SEO really works, and how you could appear multiple times on Google for massive increases in leads, clients, and revenue, please visit our main website at:
https://MedfordSEO.com
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