Ah, Springtime. Taxes, April Showers, Blooming Flowers… and Mobilegeddon! Just in case you didn’t have enough to do in this busy month.
Mobilegeddon, as it has been termed around the internet, is short for: Google starts punishing websites that are not mobile friendly. In a rare announcement, quite un-Google like, the search giant announced last month that as of April 21st, if your site doesn’t pass Google’s test of mobile device usability, it won’t rank as well in searches conducted from mobile devices (like your phone or your tablet) as those passing the test will rank.
Just think about how many times you search on a phone or tablet. I actually had a close encounter today with someone who appeared to be searching on her phone while she was riding her bike (at least she wasn’t driving). Let’s face it, mobile devices are everywhere, and when the company whose name is now commonly used as a verb says “jump”, it’s probably time to, well, jump!
At Status Forward, we’ve been building fine-tuned mobile responsive sites since the early days. It’s not rocket science, but it does take time and effort. Building a site today is a whole different ball game than it was “pre-mobile”, which is why we always chuckle when someone says they just need a “simple” site.
Bottom line is that if you are one of our clients, and your site was built circa mid-2012 or later, it’s mobile responsive and will pass the Google Test just fine. If your site pre-dates that time-frame, and you haven’t touched base with us about updating it, now is the time to do so. And if you are not a client and need your site to be mobile friendly, perhaps it’s a great time to look at the overall site design and ask us for a quote. Our wait list isn’t getting shorter.
So, go check out your site on this Google tester tool. If you pass, then good deal! If not, give us a ring. All of the sites we build are guaranteed to pass with flying colors. Meanwhile, we can check your Google Analytics reports for desktop and mobile use and we can most likely help you with your overall rankings.