Web hosting has been one of MegaNet’s core service offerings since the company was first founded in 1996. With thousands of domains hosted across geographically diverse server clusters as well as different platforms (Windows and Linux), our hosting services can cover the needs of any size or type of hosting package, including offering dedicated and managed servers.
While we’ve moved away from providing web design and SEO services in house, we are still very interested in helping our clients reach as many people as possible with their websites. Simply put, more traffic usually equals more revenue for them! It is because of this interest that we wanted to discuss some of Google’s upcoming ranking changes.
It’s no secret that mobile web searches and use are becoming far more common. According to CNBC, mobile and tablet web use will comprise the majority of Internet traffic by 2018, with 57% of web traffic coming from non-PC devices.
Google has recently stated that their preferred best practice when it comes to web sites is that they have a responsive design. That is, the same website can be viewed on a PC, a mobile phone, or a tablet all from the same basic core design. The site’s frameworks will automatically detect the device being used to view the site, and arrange itself accordingly.
Responsive Web Design not only makes the browsing experience better for viewers, it also makes Google’s indexing of the site a lot easier as well. Some web sites currently have a completely separate mobile version which results in Google having to index the site multiple times.
Since responsive web design is Google’s preferred best practice, they will soon begin ranking those sites with RWD much higher than those without it when returning search results done on a mobile device.
What does this mean for your company and your website results? If your website has a separate mobile version, your site will be ranked much lower than one that is built on a responsive web design platform, even if your company’s website would organically be ranked higher. All because the primary web design is not responsive. As users begin to use mobile web more and more, this will lead to fewer visits and a lower overall ranking when it comes to Google searches.
If your website is not currently built on a Responsive Web Design platform, or has a separate mobile version (or even no mobile optimized version at all), you may want to start considering moving to a RWD site soon. Otherwise, your business may run the risk of not being found by potential customers in the very near future. As more users move towards mobile search, you’ll want to remain at the top of their search results.
Questions about web hosting services? Feel free to call us 508-646-0030 or toll free 877-MEGANET (634-2638), email sales@meganet.net, OR you can just click on the “Request a FREE Consultation” button to the right to contact us today.
