Big, big Google changes from April 21st

(You might have received an email from us on this very subject recently… In which case, sorry to be repeating ourselves!)

You might have heard that the Google-based times are a-changing. With the dawn of April 21st, there are big, big changes afoot when it comes to Google’s search algorithm. Simply put, they’ll be digging through sites with an even finer toothcomb, giving priority to sites that are appropriately optimised for mobile users. Gone are the days where search engine optimisation and content were the main contributing factors to ranking in search results, from April 21st design and development will play a key role too.

Now we know that terms like “mobile friendly” and “mobile optimised” can be a bit industry buzzwordy, thrown around liberally to the point where they nearly lose all meaning… We’ve actually covered this subject area before on this very blog. Mobile friendliness refers to a traditional desktop site’s ability to adapt to devices of all shapes and sizes. It’s something that generally means adapting the navigation and site content for smaller screen sizes, making sure that it’s effortless for mobile users to process and tap through. Speed of information retrieval is absolutely key for mobile users, particularly given their limited data allowances.

Of course, without a few figures, the benefits of making sure that your website works and presents itself as it should on devices of all shapes and sizes might not be tremendously apparent. Luckily, we’ve had a word with Barney & Taylor and they’re happy to let us show off how successful their responsive website has been.

We can’t quite promise that embracing mobile friendly design will mean that your site produces figures quite as impressive as these! What we can promise is that without a website that is optimised for mobile, you are near guaranteed to lose out when it comes to incoming sales and enquiries. April 21st might sound like a while away, but why wait?