As of March 2020, Google WebMasters released their official statement regarding all and any mobile friendly site that does not comply with their latest update coming in September. What does this mean and why mobile friendly websites are important? 

In their recent research, Google reported that 30 percent of websites are still not mobile friendly, even though they released this update in 2016! While COVID-19 has changed the amount of traffic coming to websites from desktop or laptops versus mobile devices, the research still shows that mobile devices are the future of search queries. 

52 percent of global internet traffic comes from mobile devices. As desktop continues to be used less and less in specific industries, a company has to adapt and make sure that their website is a mobile friendly website!

1. Customers matter 

What drives your company? Your sales? The potential and current customers who are loyal to your brand and services. 

A company needs to stay competitive in its industry to keep their customers happy and if customers are not happy they will find a different company to do business with. There are over 27 billion queries performed on a mobile device instead of a desktop since 2016. 

Not all industries will have a high mobile search and that is okay! Yes, you need a mobile friendly website, but some industries need a mobile friendly site to comply with search engines and for their newer generation customers.  

2. Be competitive

There are over 1.5 billion websites out there that give consumers a billion different options when it comes to finding a company who they will conduct business with. 

As a company, you understand that you offer the best services or products in your industry, but if another competitor has that bit of an edge on you, game over. 

Don’t be the digital dinosaur with an old website. 

3. SEO

Mobile SEO is the practice of optimizing your website for users on smartphone devices and tablets.  The second most critical point of all of this is for SEO Google wants you to be mobile friendly. 

Google’s mobile-first index ranks a website based on the mobile-version even if you are searching from a desktop. Before Google declared mobile indexing changes this year, it would be a mix depending on desktop and mobile results. 

Google takes the ranking from the mobile version, not the desktop version. So, if you have a beautiful website, make sure it is mobile friendly! Any Webmaster will tell you that when Google says to jump you say, “how high?” 

With Google being the largest search engine, it is important to make sure a company is following Google Guidelines! 

4. Build credibility 

What is the first thing a consumer does the moment they land on your website? Make their first impressions. Whether it is a good one or bad one depends on your company’s website. 

And guess what, part of this overall design deals with making sure the website formats correctly on mobile devices! 

The moral of the story here: A mobile friendly website in 2020 is not a want but a necessity for all companies out there. 

This is why mobile friendly websites are important this year to every company out there searching to build their credibility, authority and ranking in Google or any other search engines. 

OMG Austin is here to help you out. Our company specializes in custom website design and developments that are friendly on any device out there! We are a Google Development Partner so we have been working on a mobile friendly website guideline since 2015!