Tuesday 21st April 2015, pop this date in your diary as this is the day Google have announced that any websites that aren't deemed mobile-friendly are likely to disappear from search on a mobile.
Google rarely announce any of these kind of updates with their search algorithms. It's so unusual that we really see these changes as having a signifcant impact on a website's performance when it comes to search results on a mobile.
Industry experts are calling this 'M' day, the day that mobile search really comes to the fore. Now, this is obviously only going to effect businesses where customers are searching for your services on their smartphone, so if you have mainly desktop users visiting your website or if people are just looking for your business by name, then you've nothing to worry about. However, as mobile has taken over desktop website users, according to a recent review by ecommerce specialists Shopify who' research showed that 50.3% of traffic comes from smartphones (see full blog here), then perhaps it is time to do something about it.
The evidence
Over the last few weeks and months, Google have been sending out gentle reminder emails through Webmaster tools, recommending that pages be optimised for mobile. These warnings have increased with multiple 'critical issues' now being highlighted in inboxes, such as the example below:
These kind of warnings are extremely rare when it comes to Google, so we thoroughly recommend that they are taken notice of. Responsive, adaptive or mobile websites are pretty much the norm with today's website development. Older, existing sites can still be made to be mobile friendly too, so there are multiple ways to meet Google's own requirements and 'pass their test'.
Should you require any help in preparing for this update, either by making your existing site mobile friendly or by taking the opportunity to create a refreshed site altogether, then don't hesitate to get in touch.
