By now, it’s no secret that the fastest way to increase your website’s exposure on Google and its search partners is through SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, but paid ads are not the only Google feature business owners should focus on.  A high rank on Google’s organic search listing will complement your SEM efforts, in addition to driving more users to visit your website, thereby increasing sales.

Earlier this year, Google announced that their mobile search engine results pages, or SERPs, will undergo an algorithm change that will reward mobile-optimized websites with a higher organic ranking, while websites that are not easy to navigate from a mobile device will suffer from receiving a poor organic ranking.  Google’s algorithms for mobile devices will be updated on April 21, 2015, so now is the time to assess your website’s mobile performance!

Nearly 80% of the Internet’s 1.5 billion global users own a smartphone, so having a high ranking on Google is crucial for business owners, now more than ever.  Upon updating mobile SERPs, Google will analyze the following website elements in order to determine which web pages offer a positive user experience:

  • The size of the font used on a web page, and whether or not the font is easy to read from a mobile device
  • The buttons and other touch elements are easy to use on a touchscreen device
  • The web pages do not rely heavily on Flash animation, which often does not function properly when accessed from a mobile device
  • The load time is not too slow, which often discourages users from revisiting the site

Keep in mind that “mobile friendliness” is analyzed for the individual web pages within a site, and while creating a separate mobile-only website is a step in the right direction, Google actually recommends having a single responsive website, which will provide a favorable user experience across computers, tablets, and high-end mobile devices.

For more information on how you can prepare your site for Google’s next algorithm update, please contact Ferocious Media today!