Google doesn’t usually let on when they are about to release an update to their algorithm.
However, this time, they have, announcing that:

“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.”

So that means that your search ranking will be higher if you have a mobile friendly site. Note that they don’t specifically say that you will be punished if you don’t but if you have a business that relies on google rankings and those ranking start falling?  That’s a pretty punishing result.

If users are engaging more and more on mobile smartphones, then Google has to consider that in their guidelines for best user experience. Additionally, if your users are not experiencing ease of use on your website through mobiles, then maybe you are not doing enough yourself to keep them satisfied.

Go mobile to keep your healthy ranking

Mobile accounts for 25% of all web usage as an average, but for some sites, this can be as high as 65%.
So what are you choices to keep your ranking high?
You can choose to make your existing site mobile responsive, especially if your site is built in the favoured platforms eg WordPress, or you can build a customised mobile site.
It really depends on your business, your customers, how they interact with you, what their intentions are for using your site.

If you have a site that was built before 2011, you actually may not have a choice, you will have to develop a custom mobile site, or bite the bullet, and build a new website with a responsive option.  To have a site that promotes a better user experience, meaning that customers stay on the site for longer, and in general, conversion rates are higher, the cost of migrating to a mobile-friendly platform should be easily recouped.

Keep your business growing

You can only increase traffic to your website if you get more exposure, and ranking well in mobile search engine results will certainly deliver that increase.
By ignoring this Google announcement, your site will receive less mobile organic traffic, it will have access to less of the market which is actually expanding, and is in danger of losing valuable market share.

There isn’t a choice. If you have a website, you have to go mobile.
If you don’t know where to start, just call us. We can help.