(Posted updated 01-18-17 with newest Google Test) Last week, Google made an announcement about their upcoming new ranking algorithm.

The biggest change we are going to see is in regards to mobile searches. It is not the first time they (and other search engines) mention that making a website responsive to mobile devices is important to them, but this is the first time they make it clear that not having a mobile-friendly website will affect its ranking. This change is scheduled to take place on April 21^st, 2015 and will be felt worldwide.

If you are unsure if your website is mobile-friendly and up to Google’s responsive standards, you can test your website by searching “Google Mobile Test” on Google’s search engine. Google should have a field for you to enter your website and test.

After entering your URL, and letting the test run its course, you should receive on your screen the green message “Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly.” If you do not, you must take action quickly. This is especially true if your site is well ranked as you are taking a great chance to lose all of your ranking after the end of April.

We have talked about the importance of making your website responsive for almost 4 years now so the Google announcement should come at no surprise.

Again we encourage you to test your site today and contact us if you have any questions on this subject matter.

We are about 8 weeks away from this drastic change and, if your site needs to be redesigned by April 21st, 2014 to be made responsive, you do not have much time left.