(Newswire.net — April 16, 2015) Barrie, Ontario — On April 21, Google is set to update the way they rank sites. In just over a week any website that has not been properly formatted for use on mobile devices will be affected. Many local businesses remain unprepared. The update was announced back in February, though it appears the message hasn’t fully filtered down to a large number of site owners. When implemented, sites that are determined not to be mobile-friendly by Google will lose their position in the search results.
“The writing has been on the wall for some now” said Aaron Fecht, owner of SEO firm Marketing Tops (http://www.marketingtops.net). “As far back as 2011 we were seeing 50% or more of the traffic to sites we monitor was mobile. Because Google places such a high value on user experience, and mobile users expect a site tailored to their environment, this update has been overdue for a while.”
That’s because mobile users quickly leave a site that is not mobile optimized after loading it. They spend very little time on the site, and don’t click through to other pages. A short time spent on a site, and a high bounce rate (when a user leaves a site after visiting only the page they initially entered on) are two of the most important metrics Google uses to determine user experience. This combination indicates a poor user experience, and that is exactly what happens when a mobile user loads a site that is not mobile-friendly.
The lack of awareness by local business owners is not surprising according to Fecht. “It probably comes down to tracking – knowing where your leads come from. If you’ve had a business for 25 years with the same phone number, and added a site 10 years ago would you know how your customers found you?”
Perceived cost of conversion was another reason listed as an obstacle for upgrading. “There are ways to get a mobile-friendly site built based off an existing site for just a couple hundred dollars” Fecht added.
To test if your site is mobile-friendly Google has provided a tool here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
Simply enter your homepage URL to see how your site looks to mobile visitors. If it passes, you are ready. If not, there still is time to act.
PDF version: https://www.scribd.com/doc/262049771/Local-Businesses-Still-Unprepared-for-Google
Original source: http://newswire.net/newsroom/pr/00088334-google-mobile-update-looming.html