Many small businesses across the country have invested a decent amount of time and money in the last few years to making sure their websites are attractive and easy for consumers to use. But coming changes to how Google ranks pages could make some companies have to change their interfaces significantly in the near future.
Google recently revealed that, when it comes to mobile searches, the ways in which it ranks websites will rely heavily on a number of new criteria related to having a mobile-specific site in place, according to a report from CNBC. This announcement was first made in February, and since then, small businesses across the country have been scrambling.
What’s the issue?
While small businesses may not want to lose out on the traffic they generate from mobile searches, at the same time, it might be a bit of a pain – both in terms of time and money – to create a full mobile site from the ground up in such a relatively short amount of time, the report said. Currently, about 80 percent of all such companies don’t have any sort of mobile site or app available for consumers to use on portable devices.
“About 80% of all small businesses don’t have a mobile site.”
Experts generally suggest that resisting such a move in any way may be a problem for smaller companies, too, the report said. A large and growing portion of all online browsing time is spent on smartphones and tablets, and therefore, any efforts that aren’t made in this arena could be damaging for these companies, even beyond having their Google rankings drop.
What can they do?
The simple solution here, then, is for companies to invest a few thousand dollars to build mobile sites for users to access, the report said. Typically, if firms paid outside parties to build their initial sites, they might be able to reconnect on building a mobile version as well. Google likewise has tips on how companies can ease that process and make sure they’re compliant with all the attendant rules related to staying high in the mobile rankings on an ongoing basis.
Owners who want to free up this kind of money might be able to do so in relatively short order by trimming their small business insurance costs. That could come via finding more affordable general liability insurance policies, among other things, to potentially free up thousands of dollars annually.
