Your Customers Are Looking For you Online – Can They Find You? So reads the tag line of one of my books, the book entitled: Mikkel Pitzner’s Trade Secrets For Marketing Your Business Online.
The book was written a few years ago and it was relevant then. But since the last major algorithm update from the biggest search engine Google, the tag line has become even more highly relevant for most businesses.
I have previously written on the subject of the algorithm update – the one that has also been nicknamed Mobilegeddon. With the algorithm update, Google now favors mobile-friendly websites over non-mobile-friendly websites and they do it in such a way that you non-mobile-friendly website quite simply won’t show up in relevant searches when the searches are carried out on mobile devices.
This is a big deal.
Yes, it’s a big deal, for upwards to 60% of all search traffic is done on a mobile device and when it comes to searches relevant to local searches, the number may been up to 80%.
In other words, if your website is not mobile-friendly, you may just have lost up to 80% of all your new traffic and thus upwards of 80% of all new potential customers.
That is definitely not only just likely to be felt at some time in your business – it will be felt! So, if you haven’t already sensed it in your business or felt a smaller number of calls coming in or seen a decline in new business, then it’s only a matter of time and you will suffer the consequences.
The fix is easy.
Yes, solving the problem is easy enough. All you need is for you to ensure that your website is changed to a mobile-friendly website.
A lot of websites today are already utilizing the popular WordPress platform (which I recommend), and if your website is one of these, then all you need to do, is to find a new theme – one that is mobile-friendly – and then update or change if you will that theme to a mobile responsive theme.
As you change the theme you may have to update certain functions and looks in order to ensure everything looks nice and neat after your theme update, but it’s relatively simple and you will quickly be on your way to gain Google’s liking again.
Indeed the fact that you can change out a look or a theme so easily is one of the major benefits to the WordPress platform and is one of the reasons I recommend the use of that platform over other solutions.
Alternatively, you can have a specific mobile website solution set up. Such a mobile website will be recognized by the mobile devices and you should thus be good to go, however the pain of this can be that you will have to remember going forward that you will need to keep two websites updated instead of just one.
There are more pros and cons to having a website specially dedicated for mobile devices and a website for the laptops and desktops, but these are beyond the scope of this article. Here, what is still the most important take away for you the reader is that you ensure your website is mobile-friendly, so that you will not be lost from the Google searches that are done on mobile devices.
If your current website is not on the WordPress platform, then whatever platform you are on, may have a solution for you with which you can convert your site to a mobile-friendly site. Alternatively, you really should consider converting over to the WordPress platform and then find a beautiful mobile responsive theme and have your website updated to that.
Again, the purpose of this article is not to promote the WordPress per se, but to hammer in the point of ensuring you are not losing out on important web searches.
So to underline the point again: Up to 80% of all online searches for local businesses are done on a mobile device. With its latest algorithm update at Google, non-mobile-friendly websites will not appear in the searches! I have already written two or three articles on the subject, but it seems the business owners are still not quite aware of what the algorithm change means for their businesses. Even among the Fortune 500 companies, an article run in TechCrunch stated that over 40% of their websites are still not Mobile-Friendly. I suspect the number for small business owners is even worse.
The importance as stated many times over is hugely important, so that’s why I’m repeating myself and posting more articles on the subject again and again. Forgive me for this, but business can be tough enough already and I believe far too many business owners are simply not aware of the changes nor what it means for their businesses. I’m hoping that my articles and posts may help some of them become aware so they can implement actions to correct their situation.
Basically it means:
No mobile-friendly website – no appearance!
Contact your web developer today to ensure your website will be found on the mobile searches or contact us at Amazing Ideas, Inc. and we will get you set up for great results and great ranking on Google. Send us an email to info@amazingideasinc.com or call at 888-988-2489 and let’s get you the results you deserve.
