Google’s search engine has always performed in mysterious ways, using complex and every-changing algorithms that determine what comes up first in any given search.  There are specialists who make their living assisting businesses with SEO, which is short for search engine optimization — the art of making sure that a potential customer lands on your web site first and not a competitor’s.

A recent change in how Google works when used on a smartphone has changed some of the established rules for SEO. The search engine will now automatically favor websites that are “mobile friendly,” in other words optimized for the smaller screen of a mobile phone or iPad.

There is a simple was to test your site to see if it passes muster. Just drop your URL into the blank on this page provided by Google, and you will see whether your side is mobile ready.

Google spokeswoman Krisztina Radosavljevic-Szilagyi, in an interview with NPR, said "As people increasingly search on their mobile devices, we want to make sure they can find content that’s not only relevant and timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens."

With almost half of search engine activity coming from mobile devices, it makes sense to upgrade your site to be welcoming for customers arriving at your site via this route.  This big change by Google, which is being dramatically referred to as Mobilegeddon, will force the 1/3 or so of all unready sites to make changes, mostly in text size and link spacing.

You can set up your site so that the same URL will automatically take readers to a mobile-ready version if they are using a smart-phone, and to the “full-size” version if they are on their desktop computer.  This process utilizes something called breadcrumbs — which seems like a very old-fashioned way to make sure that customers find their way to your door!

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder