The Google Algorithm is set to change in about a week, and it will be rewarding Mobile-Friendly websites. Here’s some helpful info and what you need to know:

Google announced the change on its Webmaster Central Blog in February and has done a thorough job preparing marketers and website owners to predict how the change may affect their site and search traffic.

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. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.

So the bottom line is this: if your website is not optimized for mobile devices, your google rankings will take a hit. Yes. You heard right. Your google rankings will drop! So what do you do now?

Test Your Website

Google has provided website owners with free tool to tell them exactly what is needed to prepare for the new mobile search algorithm.

You can access the tool here.

When you run your site on the tool, you’ll get an assessment of whether your mobile rank will suffer as a result of the April 21 change. If your website is fully optimized for mobile, you’ll get a success message like this one:

If your website, is not ready for the mobile update, you’ll get a message that looks like this:

If your site is not optimized for mobile, and you don’t know what to do next, Google has provided some helpful instructions on how to get your site ready for the change. If you need help with updating and optimizing your website, contact us and we can help.