The clock is ticking down on the so-called “Mobilegeddon.” Google has made a significant announcement for businesses and firms focusing on search engine optimization (SEO). On April 21, Google is implementing an update that ranks mobile-friendly websites over desktop websites. The rationale behind Google’s update is a focus on the end users increasingly surfing the web on mobile devices.
Statistics back up Google’s update: with more than half of Americans owning a smartphone, and with time spent on mobile devices increasing, Americans’ use of mobile devices for finding information, products and services is only going to continue to rise. What’s more, recent Google research says that 50 percent of mobile users are most likely to visit a business after conducting a local search, while 34 percent of consumers on tablets or computers will go to a store.
So why should your business care about this update? Because the impact to your business’ website traffic could be substantial. If you want your business to stay at the top of search engine rankings, and want to appeal to the increasing number of mobile users, you should care for three key reasons:
- Starting April 21, 2015, your website ranks higher on Google.
- Online users are spending more and more time online on their mobile devices.
- More than half the US population has smart phones.
Search engine optimization is a technology based on numbers, so contact a search engine optimization firm to find out your current search engine rankings and the impact of traffic to your website. The impact may be minimal—or your search engine ranking may significantly drop, leaving you and your business off the radar of the increasing amount of mobile users Google is targeting.
