Got Legs? Google Algorithm Says Sa·yo·na·ra to Non-Responsive Websites
By: Corinne Meier
Tags: Google, Google Algorithm, SEO, Why Social Media, Google Search

Got legs? Do your customers? Do your websites? Just kidding. Well — not really, but you see the thing is we’ve come up with a play on responsive websites versus non-responsively designed websites. P.S. Responsively designed websites are REALLY important as of April 21st — due to Google’s big algorithm change.

It’s pretty epic actually, per Google:

Google’s Zineb Ait Bahajji from the Webmaster Trends team was quoted as saying at SMX Munich this morning that the upcoming mobile-friendly ranking algorithm that will launch on April 21st will have more of an impact on Google’s search results than the Google Panda update and the Google Penguin update did.

Back to responsive design. Your website is officially responsive if it automatically re-frames your entire website to meet the dimensions of other size screens. This means that whether I am on mobile or desktop — I can still easily navigate your website.

If your website is cross compatible with mobile devices, at Meier Marketing, we say

“That website’s #GotLegs.”

The point is — it’s common sense that we can’t expect our consumers to only view our websites on desktops. If your website only displays on desktop — it’s insinuating that the only time your customer is looking for something online about you is when he is at a desk looking at a huge wide-screen.

This simply is not the case. It’s 100% safe to assume that your customers are real people. No matter what product or service, they are going to use their legs and mobile devices at least once a day.

Ok, that’s an understatement…per #Hubspot

Don’t make me get loud about this. Ok, I can’t help it. Hello, the first thing we do in the morning is grab our mobile phones to turn our alarm clocks off. For some of you that looks like this:

After we either hit snooze or off — we hop RIGHT onto social media to see what we missed in our 8 hours of sleep. It’s actually called: F.O.M.O ( Fear of Missing Out)

In a new survey conducted by MyLife.com revealed just how bad FOMO is:

About 27% of participants flock to social sites as soon as they wake up.

56% of people are afraid of missing out on events, news and important status updates if they are away from social networks.

26% percent said they would trade habits such as smoking cigarettes or reality TVfor access to social networking sites.

42% of study participants have multiple accounts — and the percentage jumps to 61% for those between the ages of 18 and 34.

The advent of social media and this ever growing epidemic of F.O.M.O. is a huge contributor for mobile internet usage. And, guess what — Google is NOT going to miss out on that… check out their projections!

The latest Google algorithm change comes down to one very important criterion: whether your website, landing pages, and blog are fully optimized for mobile.

Per Google:

Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.

How ready is your website for this algorithm change? You need to test it, but before you do that…

…just remember.Stay calm. The key thing here is not to throw anything against the wall. Don’t get overwhelmed…

Did you know that according to #Gartner,

Large companies spend more than $130 billion annually on their websites. Yet 72% of websites analyzed by Marketing Grader received a failing grade of 59 or lower.

So even if you don’t have 10’s of $1000’s to fix your website right now — let it be known that even companies with webmasters and digital marketing departments don’t always know what they’re doing 100% of the time.

On the BRIGHT side:

You can test your website and anyone’s website for that matter — like: YOUR COMPETITORS. If you have less red flags than your competitors — who’s going to get done with their responsive edits faster???

YOU ARE! #Winning

Below is an example of TIME magazine’s responsively designed website.

Why did I pick that? Well that’s for another blog article. Why is Google focusing on your blog being optimized? Be sure to look out for my piece on “Meier Marketing: All Brands Must Become Media” coming to you soon… Stay thirsty my friends.

If you are ready to see what the damage for going Responsive is going to be click here to get a FREE website assessment from Meier Marketing…

Yours truly — your digital marketing chic Corinne!