Google has been clear about its preference for mobile friendly websites for years now. The Internet giant even released guides and best practices for webmasters on how to make their sites ready for mobile experience. If your website is not designed to provide convenience when browsing using a smartphone or any mobile device, Google won t prioritize you in its search results.

Recently, Google has made this stance official when they announced an upcoming update on their Webmaster Central Blog:

“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.“

What this means

The impending Google search algorithm change shouldn’t be a shock for digital marketers and business owners who have always known how having mobile-ready website can widen one s business reach and generate more sales. But if you re worried because you re hearing this news for the first time, it s not yet too late to start optimizing your site for mobile search.

What Google wants is that you make sure your website can reach modern Internet users, especially those who conduct their daily online activities using their mobile gadgets. As the number of mobile users increase due to the advent of handheld devices, the upcoming search engine optimization (SEO) update on April 21 is a move that has been expected.

What you need to do

Needless to say, if you don t want your site to be buried under a bunch of other links on the search results pages, your goal must be to make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. Whether you’ve consciously done this or not, it s best to start by checking your site s mobile optimization using Google’s mobile friendly test. The tool analyzes web pages and decides whether or not your design meets Google s mobile usage standards.

If the test reveals that your website has poor screen size adjustment, then you need to look for a web developer or designer quickly. An experienced web builder or digital marketing agency can easily convert your website way before the April 21 deadline. Remember, even if you think your site is mobile-ready, it still pays to ask an expert if your website design components, including CSS, JavaScript, or images, are ready for the major Google SEO update.

Whether you like it or not, Google will always continue to exert efforts in shaping the Internet landscape. So, if you don t want to get left behind and get poor search ranking, you need to act now and make sure that your site is geared up for Google s call for mobile optimization.