Early in 2018, Google dramatically shifted how they index web traffic. They no longer index “desktop” websites for placement in search results. Instead, they now index mobile versions of websites, and base search rankings on mobile content and performance. Why did they do this? Because today, online means mobile.
As of 2018, over half of all web activity takes place on mobile devices, up from 16.2% just five years ago. And we expect this trend to continue, as smart phones get faster, smarter, and – in many cases – bigger.
Don’t Miss Out on Mobile Shoppers
What does this mean for your business? It means that if your website isn’t a fully mobile experience, you’re missing out in two ways.
First, you’ll miss out on the more than half of website visitors who want to browse your website from their phones. Your potential customers are no longer satisfied with pinch-and-pull and scrolling around the screen to make text readable or images visible. They expect your website to reformat automatically to accommodate whatever device they are using.
The second way you’ll miss out is in search results. Google places significant emphasis on mobile experience, so only the websites with strong mobile performance earn high ranks for search activity.
But I’m a B2B Seller – So This Doesn’t Mean Me, Right?
Not exactly. The other significant shift is that B2B customers act more like B2C customers today. Once people figured out how easy it was to pull up Amazon or Ebay on their smart phone and place an order, they started thinking, “Why aren’t all my purchases this easy?” Today’s B2B customer expects her vendors to make the purchasing experience easy, fast, and mobile. Even for business buyers, online means mobile.
If your website is an older, legacy site, it will need to be rewritten in HTML5 in order to perform like a responsive website. Cloud-based websites like Shopify, Weebly, and Squarespace are all responsive, as are open source websites like WordPress and Joomla. If you already have a WordPress or Joomla site, you may be able to update your template to make it fully responsive.
Not to brag (well, of course we’re bragging – this is our product and we’re proud of it!), but you could also white label the VDB App Platform and Webapp, which gives your customers an instant native mobile product experience. In fact, if you white label our app, you can achieve your mobile aspirations two ways: with a fully responsive Webapp component AND a best-in-class jewelry searching, sourcing, and selling app!
If your business is not already mobile-friendly online, you should get moving – and soon! Google is re-indexing all websites for mobile performance. Don’t risk losing those terrific search result rankings you’ve worked so hard to win over the years.