Is your real estate website mobile-friendly?
Are you sure?

Here’s Why it’s Suddenly a Big Deal

I’m sure you already know that having a mobile-friendly website is significantly important because so many people are browsing the internet from their mobile device these days.  Websites that integrate with mobile browsers and devices have become a standard in most industries, so many businesses don’t even have to think about it.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the real estate industry.  Many agents are using “free” websites provided to them by their franchise or brokerage; they are customizable to some extent but mostly canned and template websites that look fine and serve their purpose well.  However, some of real estate’s biggest and best franchises (not mentioning any names) do not offer a solution to make those agent websites mobile-friendly.  Up until now, that hasn’t been a deal-breaker.  At least you’re still capturing the visitors who are on a laptop or desktop, right?

Starting April 21st, Google is changing its search engine algorithm… and this time, they’re focused on mobile.  What’s an algorithm?  In short, it’s the “rules” that Google uses to decide which websites to offer when someone searches something on Google.  SEO, which is short for Search Engine Optimization, is the act of doing everything you can to make sure that your website is chosen by Google’s algorithm as often as possible, so that more people see your website when they search for something relevant.

Mobile-Friendliness Now Affects SEO

With what seems like an attempt to hide all non-mobile-friendly websites off the internet, they’ve announced that their new algorithm won’t have tolerance for even “partially” mobile-friendly websites.  The new algorithm will look at each website on a pass/fail basis: either it’s mobile-friendly, or it’s not.

The good news is that Google has made it easy for us to test if our websites will pass or fail their test.  Test your website and see if you get the seal of approval!  Of course, if you’re one of my web design clients, you have nothing to worry about.

The bad news is that if your site fails the test, your SEO is going to suffer.  My disdain for sales pitches almost won’t allow me to write this next sentence, but I’d be lying if I downplayed the importance of this change.  If you’ve been on the fence about having your own custom website designed, it’s time.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!