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    Yet another warning from google

  • hello@pixelsource.co.uk
  • November 8, 2016
  • Website Design
  • 0 Comments

    Yet another warning to non-mobile friendly website owners.

    For a couple of years, Google has advised site owners to ensure their sites are mobile friendly. However, this month they have stepped up their game and site owners really do need to listen if they wish to maintain their online presence.

    Firstly a couple of statistics. Google represents around 85% of UK Search engine traffic - if someone is looking for your website, then 17 out of every 20 users will use Google to find it - which is 54,000 searches per second. Secondly, the number of people accessing the web via traditional platforms - desktop and laptop computers - is rapidly diminishing. The average is around 25%, some sectors are 10% and below.

    Google has changed both the type of results and the presentation of results depending on what device is being used to access it. On a hand-held or mobile device, it will list not only website results, but also if they are mobile friendly or not. So users are immediately discouraged from visiting a non-friendly site based entirely on Google's opinion of the site. mobile-friendly-google

    So what's changed? Am I ok to continue burying my head in the sand? No. Even if you don't rely on search traffic now, in our opinion Google's influence will dictate that other platforms will follow suit.

    Google has announced this month that they are going to change their indexing process. Indexing is where they store information about every website on the planet. For the first time since Google was launched, Google plans to have two indexes. One for mobile devices and one for desktop devices. And each index will be independent.

    The intriguing aspect from this is that Google will be prioritising the mobile index over the desktop one. Mobile, being the majority device used for web searches, will be the most up to date index with the latest results. Desktop will be relegated to second place in priority and not be updated as often. And by definition non-mobile sites won't be indexed by the Mobile index (you wouldn't put a banana under the Vegetables section in the supermarket?)

    So the time is now up for website owners with their non-mobile friendly websites. That website will become an irrelevance, an obsolescence, an archaeological artefact whilst mobile friendly sites will gain the rewards from the forward-thinking investment in their sites.

    Talk to us about making your site mobile-friendly, and help us to help you increase your business' digital presence in years to come.

    For more information get in touch with Pixelsource on 0191 4234251, you can also email us via our contact form.

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