Updates to Google’s Search Engine Could Hurt 66% of Integrators’ Websites
A new algorithm change to Google could hurt the rankings of websites that are not optimized for mobile devices.
Getting your security integration company to rank highly in Google‘s search rankings takes a lot of work. Unfortunately for a large chunk of businesses, that work could potentially go down the drain.
As of April 21, websites that do not have responsive design, making them more legible on mobile devices, or Mobile First Indexing as Google calls it, may have had their Google ranking “plummet,” according to one business website. The change is important because 52.2% of all Internet traffic today is on mobile devices, according to Statista.
The algorithm change is likely to affect most integrators’ websites. “Judging by our own experience with hundreds of integrator clients, we would say that less than one-third of integrators have sites that are mobile friendly,” says Marc Bally of Relidy, providers of marketing services for integrators, including website design.
Bally says it is difficult to estimate exactly how far down an integrator’s website ranking might fall without responsive design because there are so many Search Engine Optimization (SEO) factors involved in determining a ranking, including number of competitors in the area, depth of content on the website, number of reviews on the site, quality of metatags and many other factors.
“But the simple answer is that not having a responsive site will be enough to drop you out of the top rankings,” comments Bally.
How much does a drop in Google search affect an integrator financially? It is hard to say. Word of mouth is the No. 1 referral for integrators for new business, but according to the research firm Rain Today, 97% of potential clients (even word-of-mouth clients) say a website influences their buying decision.
Responsive Website Cost = $2K to $5K
So what should you do? First, integrators can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test website to see if the change affects their website. According to Bally, it is much simpler to build a responsive website from scratch versus trying upgrade an existing site.
“A new responsive website needs to built on a new framework,” he says. “While some content can be moved over, the images need to be redone, and layouts are very different. The hard truth is… this is an ideal time to incorporate any other changes, additions, deletions they may have from their prior website strategy.”
He estimates a responsive site can be built for less than $2,000 in a few weeks, but it is relative.
“We find that by the time we take all the steps that are necessary and prudent, a professionally built, authored and designed site starts around $5,000,” estimates Bally.
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About the Author
Jason Knott
Jason Knott is Chief Content Officer for Emerald Expositions Connected Brands. Jason has covered low-voltage electronics as an editor since 1990, serving as editor and publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He joined CE Pro in 2000 and serves as Editor-in-Chief of that brand. He served as chairman of the Security Industry Association’s Education Committee from 2000-2004 and sat on the board of that association from 1998-2002. He is also a former board member of the Alarm Industry Research and Educational Foundation. He has been a member of the CEDIA Business Working Group since 2010. Jason graduated from the University of Southern California. Have a suggestion or a topic you want to read more about? Email Jason at [email protected]
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