Between 2015 and 2016, the number of people accessing the internet on mobile devices outpaced the number of people doing so on desktops. And the trend has continued ever since, with mobile claiming a larger portion of the pie every year.

Home improvement companies that don’t take the smaller screen into account are throwing good marketing effort out the window. Afterall, in 2018, more than half of all traffic on websites occurred via mobile devices. Just nine years earlier, less than 1 percent of traffic came from such devices.

Most home improvement marketers know that Google announced mobile-first indexing in 2016. The search engine giant saw this trend building and knew what the eventual conclusion was, so it began to prepare. With mobile-first indexing, Google uses the mobile version of your site to make ranking decisions—not the desktop version of your site.

Why Mobile-First Indexing?

Google’s goal is to serve up the most relevant, best results for each search. And if someone is searching from a mobile device and gets a page one list of sites not friendly to the small screen, those aren’t the best results. Google appears to be betting on mobile mostly taking over the search game in the near future, so it’s encouraging all sites to be mobile-friendly.

Why Should Home Improvement Companies Care?

In the past, lack of responsive design meant your site was cumbersome for mobile users. They might have to work harder to find what they want or be alienated and move on to the competition. With mobile-first indexing, ignoring responsive design means giving up your rank in SERPs and not getting a chance with the consumer at all.

The Current State of Mobile-First Indexing

As of July 1, 2019, Google made mobile-first indexing the default for new sites. If you’re launching a new home improvement company website of any type, it must be mobile-friendly. As for existing sites, Google spot checks them, switching them over to mobile-first as the sites appear ready.

But with everything moving to a more mobile approach, home improvement companies can’t afford to wait. Act now to ensure your site is friendly to mobile users and avoid any disruption in your SERP placement.