Two Very Powerful Reasons To Update Your Website
Smartphones are more than 50% of some website’s traffic…
Paper brochures and directories are on their way out. I am well aware of this change as I once worked for three printing companies over a 20-year career.
The internet has revolutionised how people discover and consume information. That is, constantly evolving:-
- Large desktop computers have been replaced by laptops.
- Screens have become larger.
- The internet is massively faster.
2007 Apple released their first smartphone.
2008 Google released their Android alternative.
2009 4G made using a smartphone more practical.
Since then there has been a steady rise of Smartphones for viewing websites and a decline in percentage terms of views being on Desktops.
(Tablets were popular for a while, but they are fading away in the stats and will be almost zero in time.)
The first code to make websites swap from a desktop view to mobile phone version started to become popular around 2011. Since then all the website I have built have used code which changes shape fit the viewing device
Source Google AI
Google began to prioritize smartphone-friendly websites in several stages:
2015
Google announced a mobile-friendly update that made responsiveness a ranking factor.
2016
Google announced a shift to mobile-first indexing, which involved crawling and indexing websites from a mobile perspective.
2018
Google began switching to mobile-first indexing, and by July 2019, it was enabled by default for all new websites.
2020
Google announced a deadline to transition all websites to mobile-first indexing, but extended it from September 2020 to March 2021. In May 2020, Google announced that the transition was complete.
Clearly you can still have a website which does not change shape to work well on a mobile phone, but there is a good chance your entry in Google will appear lower down the list than those which do.
1. Today all the websites I have built since 2011 or are still live and I host, change shape to match the screen size of the viewing device.
2024 mobile very popular
2023 mobile popular but not as popular as in 2024
The sample size for each graph is the same website 12-months apart with more than 1000 users in each case.
https – s for secure Source Google AI
They are all https S is for secure. It does not mean a website is legal decent and honest. It means the data from the server to the browser is encrypted where it is turned back in to readable text and pictures. This might not seem important on a brochure website, but Google likes to send people to a secure site i.e. you will almost certainly come up higher in results with a secure website.
Google began prioritizing secure websites, or HTTPS, in 2014:
- Announced HTTPS as a ranking signal
Google announced that websites with HTTPS would be more likely to rank higher in search results.
- Called for HTTPS to be used by every website
Google announced a call for every website to use HTTPS to create a more secure internet.
Google has taken several other steps to promote HTTPS, including:
- Marking HTTP sites as “not secure”
In July 2018, Google began marking all HTTP sites as “not secure” in Chrome. In October 2018, Google changed the warning from gray to bright red with an alert icon.
- Using https:// by default in Chrome’s address bar
Starting in version 90, Chrome’s address bar will use https:// by default. This improves privacy and loading speed for websites that support HTTPS
2. Today all the websites I host are secure, https and have been for many years. Because, I want my clients websites to have the best chance of being found in Google.
3. One more reason to update a website – these days pictures can fill a whole screen helping to convey a message which can be lost when the pictures are much smaller.
Conclusion
You can have a website which does not change shape to fit on the viewing device, but you will almost certainly be losing income as a consequence.
You do not have to have a website which is https or correctly configured to only display pages as https, but again you will be less likely to come up in Google searches, which will cost you money.
While the first two are being corrected this is also an opportunity to sprinkle in some photos which are the full width of the screen. This can add a lot of impact.
I could list many more benefits which a new and refreshed website could deliver, but these two are fundamental. These are not my opinion, but “directives” from Google. In the UK, Google search dominates to such an extent that whatever the Google policy is, it can either make or break the traffic to a website.
I would not mention these points if there was not the possibility of fixing these issues.
If you are looking to increase your visibility on the internet, social media and such like and require some help please call 0121 458 2665 or 07980 656 787 or if it is late / weekend please use our contact form, and we will call you back.
Still Not Sure If You Need An Updated Website? Spam, Cookies And Privacy Are 3 More Reasons...
Links are the lifeblood of the internet – a website which allows you to promote content along side your offering will serve you very well.
Tips for taking photos for your website. Location Pennard Golf Course South Wales.
Special Offer – Spread The Cost Over 12-months…
One option, like anyone I prefer to get paid for building a website 10% up front, 80% when the site goes live and 10% on 30-days after the site goes live. However, I am willing to do a finance deal and split the cost across 12-months and then a lower payment for website hosting and maintenance across the next year and so on.
If this is of interest please enquire. However, some clients after a month or two have said, “I am making so much more extra revenue I can afford to pay you the balance now. I do not need the credit”. Which is fine by me, you can settle up early by all means.