What Does Google's Mobile First Announcement Mean For You?

Stay close to your customers 24/7

More and more of us are spending 24 hours a day next to our mobile phone. When we’re not at our desks, we’re constantly in touch with our friends, family, customers and clients on our mobile phones and tablets. But what many business owners forget is that their potential customers and clients are the same. In fact, they’re looking for solutions as you read this article. And a huge proportion of them will be looking for those solutions on their mobile phone and not a desktop.

“Most people” search for solutions on their mobile

Recently, Google have said that “most people” search for solutions while on the move, on a mobile phone. So what does this mean to you as a business owner? It means that if your online presence doesn’t look great on a mobile, you could be missing out significantly as far as your potential customers are concerned. And, to add insult to injury, it’s not just your potential customers that mightn’t be seduced by your offer while on the move, Google are gunning for you too if your site isn’t mobile friendly.

Google are now rewarding mobile-friendly websites

Unbeknown to many business owners who rely on the search engines to be found, Google have been working in the background to change how they present search results. Over the past few years, Google have started rewarding sites that are mobile-friendly and penalising those that aren’t. Although people in web-related industries are aware of this, many business owners who have a website are completely oblivious. And to make matters worse, at the end of last year Google announced that they were taking things a step further.

Indexing mobile first

In light of the trend that people are now more likely to run Google searches on their phones, Google took the bold step to announce that they would be starting to index and rank sites mobile first. What that means is that if you have a website that isn’t mobile friendly, and you’re relying on being found on the search engines – you’re in dire need of a wakeup call.

At the risk of getting technical, Google are slowly but surely changing their algorithms to look first and foremost at the content included in the mobile version of a site. Google are doing this because they strive to deliver what they promise to searchers – whether that’s via organic or paid searches. And when you search on your mobile phone Google wants to know that if you click through, your experience will be as good on your mobile as it would be on a desktop.

Doing things right needn’t cost a fortune

So what does this mean for you as a business owner? Does it mean huge investment? Does it mean you have to re-look at your whole online strategy?

The reality is this: if you rely on the search engines or if you want to capture the attention of potential clients or customers, you really need to check the mobile responsiveness of your website. Is this something you can do yourself? Probably. Is it something your web service provider should be doing for you? Definitely.

Big Red - your digital partner

As we see it, when you invest in a website, it’s not a case of “job done” once your website is published. Your website is your window on the world when you’re not in front of your clients, so it’s really important that it’s doing what it should to help you grow your business.

Our job as your digital marketing partner is to keep you up to date with what you should be doing to stay ahead of the competition and continue to meet your online objectives. Knowing what you should be doing doesn’t mean you have to invest fortunes. It means that you can make informed decisions about what’s priority for you and your business.

In our next article we’ll share a journey with you that helped one of our clients get to where they need to be without breaking the bank. But the message for today is this – if you don’t know whether your website is mobile friendly or not – put checking it out on your urgent “To Do” list. This is an online change that could be quietly eating away at your profitability – so don’t ignore it.

Get in touch today if you want to make sure you capture as many potential customers and clients as you can while they’re on the move (or not).

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