Making your website mobile friendly is more important then ever. This is why REM includes making your website responsive mobile friendly in all our projects. This is something you have likely already heard. However, I want to take a moment to clarify a few things about what they really means.
I hear from clients all the time about phone calls and emails that they get from companies all over the world telling them why they need to have a mobile friendly website. Often the information is wrong or exaggerated.
The biggest confusion is the change that Google announced recently. As of April 21, 2015, having a mobile friendly website is now a "factor" in your "mobile search rankings". The part that most people have wrong are the two things I put in quotes. It is one of many factors.
Not having a mobile friendly website is not going to remove you from Google but it will help you get better rankings. The other important words I put in quotes is "mobile search rankings". Not having a mobile website, will not effect your desktop search ranking in google, only your mobile search rankings.
Now that I have cleared up the actual position Google is taking over this, and helped you ignore the fear mongering that has been going on, I will tell you it is still very important.
Mobile now exceeds PC Internet usage. Many people I talk to often forget to put themselves in their customers/target audience's shoes instead of their own. Just because you don't use your phone to search and look up website very much doesn't mean that the statistics saying otherwise are wrong. You are missing out on an entire segment of people who want to have a proper experience when visiting your website on their phone.
By making sure your website is mobile friendly, YOU WILL, see an increase in the time people are spending on your website and the bounce rate. An entire audience that would have likely left very quickly when visiting your site on a phone will now likely stay to find out all about you.
Give me a shout and we can talk more about how it can help you. You can reach me at 519-884-4111 x 111.