There are many marketing tactics that can take your business to new heights of progress, however, when you enter the online realm you need to be aware of the fact that the playing field gets leveled off and therefore, you not only need to be smart about your content but also about your SEO strategy. For a long time now SEO specialists have been emphasizing on the quality of the content and good, researched keywords to get you the traffic that you need, which will eventually turn into profitable conversions. All the same, with Google’s strict and constant updates on its algorithms, these SEO strategies are bound to stay dynamic and rightly so. With the latest Google algorithm that will be effective come April 21st 2015, you may have to rework your SEO strategy if your website hasn’t been optimized for mobile devices.
The new algorithm by Google will give more preference to websites that are mobile friendly, thereby giving them an upper hand over those whose websites may not perform the same function. Therefore, from April 21 onward, if you notice a significant drop in your rankings and website statistics, you know exactly what area you need to look into to have the error rectified and get your website the exposure that it deserves. You need to realize a simple fact that in this day and age, where a majority of the world has gone mobile and spends a major part of their time on mobile devices, taking the plunge to get your website optimized for these devices will not only make you a hit with your clients, but with Google as well.
Here are some important reasons why you need to get your website to function well on mobile devices:
More people have started using mobile devices to access the internet
Over 30 % of the audiences from all over the world prefer accessing the internet through their mobile devices and this number increases exponentially every year. The fact that mobile devices do not confine people to use the internet only when they are at home or in an office environment gives users an immense amount of flexibility and is all thanks to their mobile devices like the smartphones and tablets. This is reason enough for you to look into this matter as most of your conversions could happen while the consumer is on his way to school or work.
Helps build a stronger brand:
When you have a functional mobile friendly website, visitors tend to find it extremely credible, thus strengthening your brand. When a visitor tries to access a website that has not been optimized for mobile, you will find that he / she will give up and look at competitor sites since such websites take an immense amount of time to load the content and requires the visitor to constantly zoom in an out on the web pages so that the content can be viewed clearly. This can play a negative role in building a connection with the brand and therefore, a consistent and fully functional mobile optimized website will leave a good impression in the minds of the visitors.
As a local business, your chances of gaining more visibility are high:
Local businesses that have their websites optimized for mobile devices tend to rank a lot higher in Google’s search engine results’ page, as opposed to local businesses that don’t. As a local business, you may not want to go the extra mile as you already have a host of dedicated and loyal customers who come to you, you need to realize that word of mouth marketing too has its own limitations. A global platform can easily skyrocket your local business into a global one in due time and all you need to reach those heights is hard work along with a simple change of transforming your online presence in a way that will be feasible for the mobile audiences.
Only keep content that is necessary:
A mobile friendly website is the most convenient way to give visitors quick access and information about your company, the business that you do and the ethics that you follow. Therefore, just having your mobile website, optimized for mobile devices will do you absolutely no good. What you need to look into in addition to having the website optimized is to optimize the content as well. Therefore, eliminating fluff and having crisp, concise content is important.
Google favors websites that are mobile friendly:
Google is constantly updating its algorithms to make sure that only the highest quality of content is delivered to the audiences and therefore, its latest algorithm focuses on ranking only those websites that have a mobile friendly feature.
Google’s new algorithm is set to change the dynamics of website viewing and therefore if you wish to be on the top of the search engine results page, it is important to visit the Webmaster page (https://www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ ) that gives you the analytics of your website telling you if your website is mobile-friendly or not and what steps you can take to do so.