Many people are asking just what the update on the 21st of April will mean for their website and their organic search traffic from Google's search engine. The short answer is that we do not yet know exactly what impact the upcoming changes will have on search rankings, but we do know that there will be one.
What is the algorithm update?
Unusually, Google made an announcement in February detailing exactly what is changing, in order to give business and website owners a couple of months warning to make the appropriate adjustments. In a nutshell, the change adds a new ranking metric designed to test the mobile compatibility of a website, and rank it accordingly for searches carried out on mobile devices.
Does the update only effect mobile searches?
For now, yes. This update specifically targets mobile search results and improves the ranking those sites which are mobile friendly rather than penalizing those that are not. Currently, Google has given us no indication that this update will change the way that websites rank in desktop searches, although there is reason to believe that this might change in the future.
What do I need to do to fix my website?
Websites need to be made mobile friendly, this typically means adding a responsive design. If your website is already responsive then the chances are that you will gain from this update and do not need to make any drastic changes to the way it works. However, if your website is a few years old, then you may find that it will need to be redesigned or rebuilt in order to make it mobile friendly.
How can Source Control Help?
We can audit your website to check whether it is mobile friendly and to what extent changes need to be made. The audit will include a basic SEO report and cover other potential problem areas such as site speed, structure and backlink profile to give you a better picture of the websites performance.
Once the audit is complete we will advise on the next best steps to take, which could be anything from a few minor adjustments to structural changes or more. Contact us to arrange your SEO audit and prepare the post April 21st world!
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