Google sets the trends for the Internet, and mobile is a big part of that with Mobile First coming.   They see the data and what is going on with the Internet and back in 2015 they already saw the shift towards mobile.  So in April they did an algorithm update that focused heavily on mobile searches.

What does that mean for you?

It means that if your site is not mobile compliant, then you are not getting returns on mobile devices.

What does it mean to work on mobile devices?

If you go to your website on your phone you can see it so it is mobile compliant right?  Wrong.  Mobile compliant means that your site is made to specifically work correctly on mobile devices. So you either have a special site that is served to mobile devices or you have a website like the ones I design that are “responsive” in design.

What does “responsive” mean?

Responsive means that your website shifts the information on the pages so that they are more easily viewed on a mobile device.  There is a simple way to know if your site is responsive.  All you have to do if you are on a computer browser is grab the right side of the browser window and squish the window skinny.  If your website starts moving things around to fit in that window then your site is responsive and mobile compliant.

Why is this important?

Because more than 60% of search is done on mobile devices now.  Estimates are as high as 75%.  So most of the searches on the Internet for your products, you are not coming up in those searches no matter how good your site is.

What is worse is that in 2018 Google will be shifting this even further.  Google will be shifting to a “mobile first” search return format.  Since most of the search takes place on these devices they are going to skew the search return heavily towards mobile.  And why not?  Google wants to remain the top search engine and if most of the people are using mobile devices to do search why not cater to them?  It doesn’t mean it is going to abandon desktop search but desktop will take a back seat like mobile used to.

What do you need to do?

You need to make sure your site is mobile compliant.  You can do that with the simple method I described above or you can use Google’s tool for that HERE.

If you have any questions, you can contact me here.