What Changes Is Google Making On April 21? 

Google announced on their Webmaster Central blog that “Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal”. According to several sources, this seems to mean that sites which are not mobile-friendly will see their search rankings hit, and hit hard, by searchers using smartphones and tablets.

There’s a lot more information going around about the update, and if you’re looking to get a deeper understanding of what’s happening there are already some great resources:

• Google has answered some pressing questions about the algorithm update
• Search Engine Journal has a summary of what this means for small businesses
• Moz had a great point-by-point breakdown of what we know about the update

What Does My Small Business Need To Know? 

First things first: If you’re not sure how mobile-responsive your website is, there’s a quick way to check. Head to Google’s Web Master Tools site here:  https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ and just type in your domain. You’ll get a handy yes/no on your mobile friendliness.

If your site is mobile responsive, chances are that you’re OK after next week. You should continue to make sure to monitor your web traffic for any large, inexplicable changes, though. If you’re a seeing a hit, make sure your in-house team or third-party developers are prepared to respond to it.

If your site isn’t mobile responsive, then you need to start thinking about what that means. This article from the San Francisco Business Times is a great place to start: Establish a plan with your web developer to migrate to a mobile-responsive design; come up with a timetable and budget; and don’t forget to explore mobile-responsive templates in any e-commerce platforms your site uses (like Shopify etc.)

How Much Of My Audience Is “Mobile”? 

This is important to know for a wide variety of marketing reasons. But in this case, it will help you judge the impact of the algorithm change on your traffic.

First, log into your website’s Google Analytics. On the left hand side, go to the Audience header and select “Technology”, then “Mobile”, and finally “Overview”. That should give you a good idea of how big your mobile audience is, and from there you can judge your expected impact.

If you’re getting 5-10% of your traffic from mobile search, and most of that traffic is from a branded AdWords campaign and/or just directed at your homepage, you might want to put a mobile site overhaul on the “nice to have” project list for the next 16 months.

If you’re getting 30% of your site’s traffic from mobile search, and it’s hitting different parts of your site, like your blog or product description pages, that means organic traffic is a key revenue driver for your business and you need to move up making your site mobile-friendly on the company to-do list.

A few years ago, the amount of traffic from mobile users was minimal. Now it’s between 10% – 50% for most sites. Chances are the majority of your customers are opening your email or reading your Tweets on their phones – and those marketing channels point to your site, you need to ensure a consistent mobile-friendly user experience. This latest update from Google is the latest (and most massive) push toward total mobile friendliness.

Is there a specific topic you’d like to see us cover? Let us know in the comments! And if you’re interested in being matched with a marketing advisor that can provide customized guidance to help grow your small business, check out our advising program at businessadvising.pcv.wpengine.com.

(image: Duncan Hull “Send your Query to: Google Inc. Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043”)