The majority of mortgage broking websites may become outdated after Google announced it is going to change the way it ranks sites.
By the end of the month, Google will incorporate mobile-friendliness into the signals that contribute to where a site appears on its search engines.
“As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns,” Googled stated in a recent blog.
The Adviser recently conducted a random test of 100 mortgage broking websites and found that 59 per cent of them were not mobile friendly.
John Kolenda from Finsure said mobile marketing’s increasing importance in modern financial advertising was behind the change.
“Websites that were developed as recently as three years ago may not be mobile-friendly, as it wasn’t seen as a necessary extra cost at the time,” Mr Kolenda told The Adviser.
“Clearly, this latest announcement from Google will shift all future developments towards more responsive, mobile-friendly websites.”
Mr Kolenda suggested brokers who haven’t already made changes to their websites to make them mobile-friendly should start making plans to do so.
“Web developers are aware that this is a problem for many businesses with a tight budget, and are able to create affordable mobile sites without having to redesign an entire existing website,” Mr Kolenda said.
“For many brokers, this will not only help improve their SEO rankings, but allow them to better engage with mobile customers.”
