When was the last time you used Google to look something up, yesterday? Today? Five minutes ago?
Google is the driving force in the world of online search and works hard to ensure that its search engine is always the best there is. Most of the work takes place behind the scenes as programmers hammer away at their keyboards to give Google users the best possible search experience. Every year or two, however, Google announces a major overhaul of the way it decides where a website ranks in search results.
In just a few days - more precisely on^21. April - one of those big updates is coming, and Google has made it very clear that the focus will be on the mobile experience. Specifically, Google says that the "mobile-friendliness" of a website will now play a role in where that website ranks in searches for relevant keywords. In a statement released in February anticipating the update, Google wrote: "Starting 21 April, we will expand our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal... This change will affect mobile search queries in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact on our search results."

"Why the big change? What does it mean for me?"

Google knows that more people than ever are using their mobile phones to look things up. Estimates show that between 30 and 70 % of all relevant searches made by your target audience today are made via a mobile device. This figure is even higher when it comes to products that fulfil an immediate need and are relatively inexpensive, such as food and household goods. With this update, Google wants to ensure that users can easily navigate through the results, regardless of the type of search.
The impact of the update, known as 'mobile-geddon', will vary from company to company, but it is likely that all will be affected at some point; Even if you're in an industry with low mobile traffic, the trends from year to year are clear, and mobile search will become important to your business sooner rather than later.
In simple terms: If your website is not set up to be mobile-friendly, it will negatively impact your search engine rankings and therefore your traffic from potential customers.

"How can I ensure that my website is mobile-friendly?"

Google's mobile-friendly test: Google knows that such a change in search results can affect the wellbeing of business owners, so they're not leaving you completely out in the cold. They have set up a mobile usability test: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/. Here you can get a "mobile rating" of your own website by simply entering the address.
You also get a preview of how your website will look on a mobile screen.
If your website looks good to Google, you will be congratulated. If not, you'll get some suggestions on how to spruce up your website.

Take the "Footsteps Test":

Put yourself in your customers' shoes and walk through your mobile offering as they would. Google has proven that it can rank websites well based on user experience and rewards websites that improve that experience.
Visit your company's website on your own phone and try to perform the various tasks that your customers perform. Are the buttons big enough? Is the text readable without extreme zooming?
Unfortunately, instead of using their mobile website as a fully functional tool, many companies choose to treat the mobile website as a small, stripped down version of their actual website - this can be extremely frustrating for your users! Make sure you can do the same things on your mobile website as you can on the desktop version. Throughout development, ask yourself, "If I were a customer right now, would I be happy or frustrated? Would I use this company again because of what I was able to achieve purely on mobile, or would I look elsewhere?"

Separation:

If you don't have the technical know-how yourself, you should ask your web designer to make your website responsive. This means that images, text and other elements will change their size and behaviour depending on the width of the screen and/or the device someone is using to visit your website.
In other cases, you can host a completely different version of your website that is displayed when a mobile device accesses your URL (these are usually hosted as subdomains and look like "m.website.com" or something similar). This way, mobile users will see a completely different version of your website formatted just for them!

Give them the choice:

Regardless of how your mobile site is set up, the variety of phone types means that someone will likely visit your site and it will behave differently than you intended. When that happens, there's nothing more frustrating than being trapped in the mobile version of a website that doesn't work. Give users the option to switch to the desktop version of a website, even if they are on a mobile device; this is often offered via a button or link at the bottom of the website that says something like "View desktop version".

Reflections on the content:

p version" Of course you want users to experience your (now beautifully optimised!) mobile site, but if that doesn't work out, they'll certainly appreciate the ability to still access what they came for.
Finally, solid website content will continue to be an important ranking factor in the eyes of Google, so try to display your content skilfully on mobile. For example, it's not far-fetched that you can achieve better rankings on mobile devices over time by doing things like.

Adjust the font size so that it is easier to read or fills the screen of a mobile phone better.
Place certain content that is more relevant to mobile users higher up on your page. An example of this would be a restaurant placing its menu further down the page to provide at-a-glance information that mobile users are looking for, such as opening hours, phone number, minimum order quantity for delivery, etc.

In any case, it's a safe bet that thinking of your customers first, now as an army of mobile users, will always be seen as favourable in the eyes of Google. It's likely that this update is just the beginning, and future changes will reward ongoing and responsive changes to better suit the mobile lenses through which users experience your site.