What if Gmail made you scroll like crazy over your mobile to read mail. Imagine yourself scrolling the screen from left to right to read each sentence.
Painful, right? How likely would you be to use Gmail on your phone? Probably not very often. Why?
Bad user experience.
See the infographic on why Mobile responsiveness is the key to getting success online.
Thanks to apps and design, Gmail doesn’t suffer from this type of annoying display issue but many websites — both popular and otherwise — do not make mobile viewing as great of an experience as it could be for their audience.
Therefore, it should come at no surprise to us that this is exactly the reason behind Google’s latest update and that now, she wants all of us to fix our websites.
Google’s Latest Commandment: Get Mobile-friendly or Your Mobile Organic Traffic Will Suffer
Google algorithms are always aimed at improving a user’s experience. This time around, the latest Google algorithm takes this a step further. According to the latest update (also, being referred to as “Mobilegeddon” by some), Google will now target websites that aren’t responsive.
As I mentioned before, this comes as no surprise. Google has always stated that it preferred mobile-friendly sites. This algorithm update now simply lays it down as a commandment rather than just favoring them.
So what does this new Google update mean?
Essentially, if users are searching for a keyword using their mobile devices, the search engine results will only contain the websites that are optimized for the mobile devices or are responsive.
How Does This Update Work
Let’s assume that your content and website are optimized for certain keywords. And you rank well for them and, as a result, you get a decent amount of organic traffic through your on-page SEO efforts. (Chances are that this took a lot of time and hard work on your end.)
Until now, Google wouldn’t take into consideration the device that your users were performing the search on as factor for ranking your site. So, whether users searched on the desktop or a mobile, it didn’t make a difference in what popped up in the search results.
However, going forward, Google will now take note of the device that the user makes the search with.
If this device is a something like a smartphone or tablet, Google will only fetch and display websites that are optimized for those mobile devices. If your website is not mobile-friendly (or responsive), Google will not list you in the result pages for the query.
If you ignore this update, your mobile traffic can get significantly impacted.
Worrying about your SERP rankings will do no good. Install a responsive WordPress theme on your website or blog to make it viewable on every type of screen.
Why can that be said so confidently?
Well, with so many handheld and mobile devices out in the world, most people will perform a quick search on their phone to find out more about some recent news, new products or services. And since you wouldn’t want to lose out on all these potential leads, making your website responsive is a must for you.
Just think, if you’re a brick and mortar type business that ranks well in local search for competitive keywords, then the vast majority of your leads will come from simple Google searches. However, if your site is not mobile-ready, then you are going to vanish from the results made on mobile devices meaning that you will lose a ton of work.
Bummer!
And it’s not just the update that should inspire you. There are some more reasons why you should get a mobile-friendly website.
Other Benefits of Making a Website Responsive:
Boosting Social Following and Interaction:
With built-in mobile apps like Facebook and Twitter, people are networking like never before. So the content that will look better on a mobile device will be shared easier and faster. To make you content stand out from the rest of your competitors, you can give social proofs like the number of Facebook likes, G+ followers etc. You can also use a review plugin in case you are running a product/service website. This will help you mark trust on the users.
Making Users Happy:
Almost everyone’s on a time crunch these days. With packed schedules and tight deadlines, people are increasingly looking to do more and more things while on the go. Some time back, I came across this Hubspot post. It actually talks about how you can make your commute more productive.
But, seriously. People are looking to get more done with their mobiles.
With times being as they are, you can’t present your readers with websites that look clumsy on their devices. They surely deserve better than that.
Convinced? Here’s the next step.
How to Check If Your Website Is Responsive
Head straight to Google’s own mobile friendliness tool and feed your site’s URL. The results will show you how mobile-friendly Google finds your site.
If you’re not already running a responsive website, then you better hurry! Google has already rolled out the update on 21st April.
If you need a theme that’s easy to customize, is mobile friendly and offer a ton of other great options, then be sure to take a look at our responsive premium WordPress theme shop. Not only are they built for speed (another ranking factor for SEO in Google), but are mobile ready or responsive and will help you avoid losing your rankings.
