SEO: Google Rewards Mobile Friendly Websites

In April of this year, Google announced that its algorithm would undergo an overhaul. The focus of its algorithm change would be to deliver a better mobile experience to its customers by providing mobile-friendly developed websites (responsive) with an advantage over websites that are not. The algorithm scans each page on the site, checking for load times, responsive design elements, and mobile best practices.

Google’s priority is to ensure that it remains the dominant player amongst search engines. It will only accomplish this if the quality and relevance of its search results are superior to those of its competitors. By rewarding websites that are fully mobile responsive it helps to accomplish this goal.

The message and implications of this new change are obvious: Make sure that your website accommodates the growing mobile user base (about 30% of overall searches in 2014, and growing at a rate that’s ten times faster than non-mobile searches), or be prepared to face the repercussions with ranking penalties. Since the algorithm changes were made, each individual website has been effected differently, but early results clearly indicate the bias towards mobile-friendly websites in ranking positions.

Businesses who plan to build new websites should make mobile accessibility a strong priority. By overlooking the importance of mobile searches, businesses will find that establishing high rankings for industry search terms will be more difficult – and for those who do make it to these websites – fewer of their mobile searches will end up converting into phone calls and paying customers.

What we recommend:

Consider building your new website on a fully-responsive mobile friendly WordPress platform, either using a theme or if required, a custom built design. There are many great themes to choose from for a variety of different industries, and the best part is that responsive themes will be viewed perfectly from all major mobile devices and browser types.

To learn more about how this topic and how to create of a fully-responsive mobile website, we invite you to reach out and contact our experienced team. We will outline a variety of options for different budget sizes along with recommendations. Call 416 617 0293 or email us today

Contributed by Mike Szummer.