Mobile site

Google is rolling out yet-another update, this time focusing on mobile usability on websites:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html

The update is scheduled to be rolled out starting April 21st, and the fear mongering has already started:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244175

What does this mean for you? Well if you have been building websites or doing SEO for any length of time this update should not come as a surprise: Google is now factoring in mobile usability into their algorithm. That means sites that are optimized for mobile will appear higher in their search results and sites that are not mobile ready (in the eyes of Google) will be penalized and may fall further down the search results.

Google has released a tool that tests sites for their mobile readiness and provides instructions for improving a sites mobile design as well:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

I always run my clients websites though this tool, and in most cases find a number of items that can be fixed. It's also a great way to approach new clients - run any business' site through this scanner and email them the results along with a link to the article on entrepreneur.com above. I haven't tried this yet for getting new clients, but my current clients have expressed a concern for this