Changing the Rules – Again!

When Google says jump, we all say “how high?” Google is the king of search.  The world searches for everything on Google – including where to find a dentist. Having your website position high up on your local Google Business Map is thus a major important marketing strategy. To be successful in this day and age, you simply have to be prepared to play in the Internet world. Warning – the rules as we know them are about to change dramatically!

On April 21, 2015, Google will begin using mobile-friendly compliance of your website as a ranking factor in searches performed on mobile devices. It is critical to their business that their searches – on all devices – lead to useful information. According to a recent Forbes article,  mobile devices currently make up approximately 60% of all Internet searches, and that number is increasing every year.

So if your website is not written with responsive design technology that allows it to be properly and seamlessly displayed on any smart phone or tablet, Google is going to penalize you severely. Your website will still be listed if you are not mobile friendly, but it will be positioned below sites that are mobile friendly. You take the risk of being pushed so far down on the page that you likely will not be seen. It is no consolation that the mobile friendly update only affects mobile search results and not searches conducted on desktop or laptop computers.

I would encourage you to run your site through Google’s Mobile Friendly test.  It takes less than a minute to find out the results. If your site fails the test, I implore you to call your website company and take immediate action. If you have any doubts about your webmaster’s ability to help you make the necessary upgrade to your site, I feel very comfortable encouraging you to call my good friend Tim Healy at TNT. His company has been making me look good since 2008!