The Mobile-Friendly update will be bigger than Panda and Penguin

A huge change is coming in SEO. Are you ready?

By now, you should already know that Google will be launching the mobile-friendly algorithm update on the 21^st April and it is going to be massive.

Zineb Ait Bahajji, a Google’s Webmaster Trends Analysts, has announced that the mobile-friendly update is going to be big. He didn’t confirm how big but several SEO experts have suggested that it is going to have a bigger effect than Penguin and Panda.

Google release hundreds of updates every year, most are just minor but once or twice a year Google release a huge algorithm change and this is clearly one of them and can’t be ignored.

The Panda and Penguin updates have had a massive impact on the search engine results, having decreased rankings for thousands of websites that were abusing the system by going against Google’s guidelines. Now these updates have changed the way that many SEO’s create content and build links.

So will the mobile-friendliness update have the same impact?

With more and more people using their smartphones and tablets to search the web, having a non-mobile friendly website will have many negative effects on your business and online impact. Users value mobile-friendly websites because they are easier and faster to use than non-mobile friendly websites. With non-mobile friendly website users have to pinch and zoom as well as swipe in all directions to be able to find and click what you are looking for. Mobile-friendly websites make internet users lives easier as they offer the best user-experience no matter how big or small the device they are using is.

And now it also looks like it will have a huge impact on your rankings too. This means that any of your competitors websites, if they are mobile-friendly, could be ranked higher than you simply for that reason.

Now is the time to act and go responsive. Google favours responsive web design over a mobile website as it offers a seamless user-experience across all devices. The best mobile-friendly website will deliver their users the most consistent and convenient experience.

Although the update will not have an impact on desktop search results, the average estate agency website is accessed by mobile users 40% of the time (we’ve seen this figure go up to 60% for some estate agents), being mobile-friendly is now a necessity for all estate agents.

From now on you can no longer just focus on desktop for online experiences, the likelihood is that a huge number of your websites visitors will be coming from a variety of mobile devices and your website should be able to accommodate all of them.

No estate agent should settle for a traditional desktop website, responsive web design is the only way to go in 2015!