Google is the dominant search engine. Globally almost 66% of desktop searches are done on Google. The second most used is Baidu (a Chinese Search Engine). On mobile the statistics are even more startling; 92% of searches are via Google. In the UK across all searches (desktop and mobile) Google commands 88% market share. When Google changes how its search engine shows results it affects all UK businesses, that is the power it wields, rightly or wrongly fairly or unfairly.
So its recent announcement that it will penalise non mobile-friendly websites should have business owners taking notice all round the land. If your ecommerce site is not mobile-friendly, expect to see its ranking, traffic and subsequent sales fall. This is not being alarmist but realistic. Google announced that as of 21st April 2015 it will penalise websites that don’t have a mobile-friendly version.
So what can businesses do about this? Well if they don’t already they need to have a mobile-friendly website and that means one of two options, have a standalone mobile website or a responsive website. A responsive website adapts and responds to whatever screen it is being viewed on, whereas a mobile site is a static mobile site built specifically for smartphones.
Cybertill designs and builds responsive sites, rather than mobile sites, and Google also recommends responsive sites. Later in May our blog will be going into the technical detail of why responsive is a better choice than mobile.
To find out more about responsive websites and what they entail we have created a responsive infographic, which can be downloaded here.
Whatever decision you make, you will need to decide quickly before you notice traffic to your site falling.
