Mobile use is growing very fast. It is over 50% overall (and has been for years) and there is no question this is the direction the web is taking.
In April 2015, Google made a change so that mobile friendliness is more important than ever for rankings in search results. This means if your website is not mobile friendly, it could go down in the search results & therefore get less traffic. (You might also have heard the term “mobile responsive,” which means that a website can respond depending on the size of the device – that is what makes it mobile friendly!)
And in November 2016, Google announced Mobile-First Indexing. Read more here: Mobile-First Indexing – Is It Trouble for You?
Most small business websites are not mobile friendly & this has a negative impact for both clients & Google. This is an important issue for small business websites! And if you do not believe me, check out some recent articles:
- Seven Reasons Your Business Needs a Mobile-Friendly Website Right Now [Infographic]
- 91% of Small Business Websites Not Mobile Optimized (Yahoo Small Business)
- Get Your Small Business Website on the Mobile-Friendly Bandwagon (Huffington Post)
Here are some next steps . . .
Video
Learn some basics about mobile SEO (only 5 minutes!):
Mobile Friendly Quick Checks
- See if you pass the minimum requirements with Google’s mobile friendly test.
- While you can certainly check on your own device, it is a good idea to check on multiple devices. You can use a mobile emulator to check a few devices that you don’t have. (Many people pass the Google test, but you can still see things that aren’t working right for people using various devices.)
Get Help
If those checks and tests seem stressful, maybe you would rather that we look at your website together and talk about it. We can also discuss how important this is to you, considering your unique situation. There are several points to consider . . .
Points to Consider to Decide How Important Mobile is to your Business
- What is your business? (restaurant? therapist? etc.)
- Do you focus on local clients?
- Do you focus on young clients?
- Is the important information mobile clients need in the upper left corner?
- What is that important information? (name? address? phone number? hours?)
- What percent of your users are mobile now?
- What is their bounce rate?
- Are you on the current version of WordPress?
- What theme are you using?
- Which best describes how you feel about mobile & your biz? (Wanting all of these is fine!)
- I just want it to look OK & not be embarrassing via mobile.
- My clients are mobile people – it is important they can really use my website via mobile devices.
- I want people to find me easily via mobile search.
More Resources
A couple more resources on topics important to mobile:
Let’s take care of this so that your website is working well for you and your clients no matter what device they are using! If you want help, reach me here.
P.S. This page was last checked and updated July 2017.