You might have noticed that a little while ago, Google kind of hinted that sites that were very clearly mobile-friendly are more likely to be shown in search results.
But now, this news got serious. The Google-Gods have now given us a deadline – your website needs to be mobile friendly by April 21st, or your website just won’t appear in search results.
That sounds scary, but when you think about it, that makes sense.
50% of my traffic comes from a mobile device, and I am guessing that is the same for you too. So it makes sense that your clients are able to access and easily read your site, because otherwise, your client is very likely to switch away and find another photographer whose site is much swifter and easier to read, and prettier to look at.
The good news is that there is an easy way to find out whether your site is mobile-friendly.
Use this link right here https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
It takes about 30 seconds, and will even show you what your site looks like when viewed on a typical mobile device.
Most modern sites should be mobile-friendly, but if yours isn’t then you either need to take the steps necessary to convert it into a more friendly site, beg/buy/borrow/steal the assistance of a web developer, or perhaps switch themes, profiles, or templates. Which is obviously a bit of a headache when it comes to moving your entire site, but what is worse- the hassle of upgrading or refreshing your site, or having a site that nobody sees?
The Google change also gives you the advantage over the ‘competition’ (if you still to choose your friends + colleagues in that light) because if they don’t know about this change and their sites aren’t responsive… watch as they drop down the listings and out of sight.
I wanted to let you know about this change today as I feel it isn’t something that everyone yet knows about – and it is important that you do, because for obvious reasons it can seriously effect your profitability.
If you have found it useful, please do share it using the buttons below – nobody in business should be left with a site that is invisible!
Thank you for letting us know about this change Charlie! I went to the link to check out my website and it showed that I was not mobile friendly. However, when I look up my website on my phone it looks great. Not sure what I need to change so Google recognizes it
Hi Kendra,
Have you submitted your site to Webmaster tools? Indexing your site with them might help. Also what are your site load speeds like? If it slow loading because you have large image files, Google can recognise that as not mobile friendly. Finally you could follow the steps listed in this link which helps you to ensure your template or site is mobile friendly (copy and paste it )
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6001177?hl=en
I hope this helps a little Kendra x
Thank you very much for the heads up. I recently updated my website with the main purpose of making it mobile friendly and reading about the deadline now only makes me high-five myself :)! I did the test and it got ‘Awesome – This page is mobile friendly’. Good times.