The next big Google update

Google have hundreds of small updates every year but once or twice a year they release a game changing update that can have a huge impact on your websites SEO.

Over the last few years the big three updates have been Panda, Hummingbird and Penguin, all of which have been put in place to deliver better results for those websites with high quality content and great usability.

However, another huge algorithm change is about to launch on April 21^st that will have a huge impact on everyone’s SEO. From April 21^st Google will be adding the mobile-friendliness factor to their algorithm, meaning all non-mobile friendly websites may get a bit of a shock as of April 21^st.

Why go responsive?

A responsive website delivers the best user-experience as it is compatible with all devices and will deliver the same information and look no matter what size the screen is, unlike a mobile website.

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly or it isn’t fully mobile-friendly which most mobile websites aren’t, you can expect a decline in visitors to your website from Google within the next few weeks.

Why should you care about Google’s algorithm update?

Google’s algorithm signals are put in place to deliver the best results; they know what their audience wants from them and which websites their audience wants to see.

This update is all about the user experience, making their audiences searching experience easier.

If you are searching on Google from a mobile device and click on a link to a website, if you land on a page that is too small to click links, read the content or navigate the page, forcing you to pinch and zoom in, then scroll up, down, left and right to find what you are looking for can be very annoying and difficult, especially if you are a bit of a technophobe with fat fingers.

When this happens, it is very likely that you would back up and look for another website that delivers a better user experience.

This Google algorithm update falls in line with all their other updates by rewarding websites that provide the user with relevant, high quality information that is easy to find and has great usability. Websites that don’t do this have been penalised and/or ranked down.

The previous algorithm updates Penguin and Panda impacted 12% of mobile search results. The new mobile-friendliness update is expected to have a much bigger impact on the mobile search results.

This is because a huge number of website still are not mobile-friendly and those that are will be rewarded with higher Google rankings when someone searches via a mobile device.

Google estimates that around 50% of all their searches are done on a mobile device, so this is a pretty huge deal.

Are you still unsure if your website is fully mobile-friendly? Then request a free web review here and find out.