On April 21, Google amped up the pressure on businesses to cater to the ever-growing, on-the-go market. From this point on, the leading search engine will strong arm webmasters to create dynamic websites that are mobile-friendly, or else face the agony of their company possibly being found on page two or beyond of search results.

Specifically, Google has recently changed their algorithm to favor websites that render well on mobile devices by ranking those companies higher. This new policy rollout should not affect users searching on desktop computers or tablets.

Still, this shift cannot be ignored; especially because Google dominates 64.4 percent of the U.S. search engine market share. An industry-insider article (“Are you ready for Google’s mobile algorithm change?”) warns this big change must be taken seriously, because businesses that do not have a mobile-ready website stand to lose up to 1/3 of their traffic.

“Mobilegeddon”
Many tech bloggers have dubbed the recent announcement as “Mobilegeddon,” since Google will be the only judge of the mobile-friendly rating. Fortunately, a tool was launched to allow a web address to be plugged in for a Google Developers’ test.

The algorithm scans each page of a website to check for load times and if elements are responsive, such as text sizes, images and animations. The tool lists reasons for a bad rating, including “Content wider than screen,” which would force a user to scroll across the page and even zoom in to see specific content. Other negative feedback involves “Links too close together,” which makes it difficult for a user to tap a hyperlink to access another page or feature.

Most of Mopdog’s websites received an “Awesome” rating, with an image displayed showing how nicely that exact home page renders on a smart phone. These great results for clients are due to Mopdog’s focus on proactively making the usability of our website designs a positive experience.

Are you concerned about how Google’s new algorithm will affect your company’s online traffic? Mopdog’s expert web developers know exactly what changes to make to get you the results you need!  Contact Bill Musial at [email protected].