Popularly referred to as “Mobilegeddon,” Google’s April algorithm update was a major cause of worry for companies of all shapes and sizes. Websites that did not meet the new “mobile-friendly” guidelines faced the threat of lower rankings in mobile searches. This, in the context of the 2014 findings that 30% of searches came from mobile devices, means that a mobile-unfriendly website could lose a significant amount of traffic.

Fortunately, the results of the initial update haven’t been as catastrophic as many feared, but it would be a mistake to think that you’re in the clear. This update is likely the first of many that will be designed to incentivize companies to consider their websites in a mobile context. Mobile use continues to grow, and it’s time for websites to evolve with the times.

If you have ever searched for something on your phone, only to zoom, pinch, scroll and painstakingly pluck tiny links on a site designed for desktop, you’ve experienced the struggle of a non-optimized website. If you’ve ever been stuck with a popup you couldn’t close, found an image that you couldn’t view or went to a mobile website that offered only a fraction of the content you could see on a desktop, you know the damage a non-mobile website can do. The frustration, anger and defeat users feel when trying to access a desktop site on mobile can cause them to quit before they begin. If your company isn’t thinking about how to make your visitors happy on mobile devices, you run the risk of losing them.

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