There are two types of sites out there – mobile-friendly and not-so-mobile-friendly, also known as non-responsive. And come April 21st, Google will officially recognize the difference and penalize the latter. If your site is not responsive come the 21st of this month, you’re risking your Google positioning to decrease significantly.

What exactly is it?

Every so often, Google must update their search algorithms to match up with the changing patterns of all users (which, if you weren’t aware, Google dominates all other search engines, having almost 68% of the search engine market share). Because there are more mobile internet users than desktop users, it’s time that the mobile-friendly sites with quality content are recognized for their ease of readability.

How does it effect my site?

If this isn’t enough to motivate you to get that site mobile-friendly, then you will be left in the dust. Your non-responsive site will no longer be number one and your mobile-friendly competitors will rank above you. And it’s only a domino effect from there: significant decrease in traffic to your website, less brand awareness, less leads, and in turn, missed revenue opportunities.

And because Google gave us almost a two month warning (historically, we don’t even get a warning), we have a hunch that this algorithm update will be substantial.

There’s no way I can get a responsive site by April 21st. What do you recommend I do?

Short term speaking, it’s recommended that you convert your site to mobile-friendly. This can be done quite quickly and Google will surely reward you for it.

But because the user trends are only pointing more and more towards mobile, this should be something your business considers in it’s upcoming strategy. Creating a custom responsive site from scratch will ensure that your content is laid out exactly how you want it and is easy to use.

hayWire specializes in responsive design, whether you need the short-term fix of converting your current site or you’re looking more into the long-term approach of creating a custom site. Ready or not, April 21st is almost here!

 

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