On April 21, Google rolled out an update to its search engine focused on mobile sites. Read more about it here:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2015/04/rolling-out-mobile-friendly-update.html.
This will affect every business with a website—for good or for bad.
We have all come across a lot of websites on our phones that are nearly impossible to read because they are just a website on a very small screen or the formatting is wacky This can be very frustrating for the site visitors as they can’t view the information for which they are looking.
Many websites you visit on your phone are specially formatted for the small screen. For example, if you go to KonaImpact.com on your computer and on your phone, you’ll mostly the same content formatted for two different devices. There is a mobile version and a full-size version.
To check your website for mobile-friendliness on Google’s tool:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
Google’s new algorithm (the formula it uses to match searches with content) will now give preference to mobile sites when the user is searching through a mobile device. This means that a search for “kona snorkeling tour” on a phone and a desktop will most certainly give different results. A company with a traditional website and a mobile site is likely to have visibility for computer-based and mobile-based searches. One that has only a traditional website is likely to not appear for mobile searches.
What will this mean for businesses in Kona, Hawaii?
Well, if your business has anything to do with tourism, you are going to lose out on a huge amount of business if you don’t have a mobile site.
We estimate that over 50% of searches for tourism-related businesses are done on mobile devices, so a restaurant, tour operator, lodging provider or transportation company, is likely to be losing a tremendous amount of business if they do not have a mobile site.
Even a car mechanic, retail shop or service provider not focused on tourism will see a marked decrease in website traffic if it does not have a mobile site.
What can be done?
If your website is very old, it might be a good time to make a new website, while at the same time making a parallel, mobile-friendly version. An old car with new seat covers is still an old car.
If your website is fairly modern, we might be able to use what you have to create a mobile-friendly version fairly quickly and inexpensively. This is certainly less costly than starting over, and you will be able to be recognized by Google as mobile-friendly.
Crating a mobile friendly site for some websites might require more work.
The first step is to give us a call—329-6077-and have us take a look at what you have. From that information we can give you an estimate of the time and costs involved.