The simple answer is it depends on why you have a website. If the website is not a source of business or the impression it leaves with visitors does not matter, it is not a big deal. If it matters, read on.
Mobile searches have overtaken desktop and Google has put in place measures to ensure that searchers not only get exactly what they want but also have a great mobile experience. It logically followed that Google implemented their ‘Mobile-First’ strategy at the end of 2016 in its continued effort to push website owners to adopt this approach.
An outcome of this is that it is no longer an option for websites not to be mobile optimised. The search results delivered on a Google search is the outcome of Google Spider crawling the entire world wide web and indexing these pages. Google used to previously index both a desktop version (to serve on desktop searches) and a mobile version (for mobile searches). Google currently uses only its mobile index, thus both the desktop and mobile organic search results are based on this index.
Google is no longer making mobile-friendly adjustments. We are now in a phase where it is disadvantageous not to have a mobile optimised website and moving towards designing and building websites for mobile than for desktop.
Mobile optimisation is now an important algorithm for organic rankings on Google with the mobile-first approach. Rankings are also impacted by various factors that limit a great mobile user experience. This includes page load speed, interstitials, touch elements being too close, small font size, use of Flash, etc.
In summary, if you do not have a mobile responsive website yet, this should now be a priority. It is also important to work with a web design and development company that understands the future for mobile websites and makes it a part of the work for their clients. We are Auckland based with clients across New Zealand and Australia. Let us help you with your new mobile responsive and optimised website.