Google's latest algorithm change, which will favor mobile-friendly websites starting later next month, threatens to make it more difficult for clients — or potential clients — to find financial advisers' websites in Google searches.
That's because many advisory firms have simply failed to keep pace with the times and are operating websites that are better suited for desktops than for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.
Indeed, 41% of the advisory firms that participated in
InvestmentNews' 2015 Tech Study conceded their websites were not optimized for mobile use. Meanwhile, 44% said their websites had been optimized and 16% were unsure.
"Financial advisers are serving a vast population of people who will be accessing their websites from a variety of different devices," Jimmy Douglas, general manager of
Smarsh Sites, a company that works with 5,000 financial advisers to create websites, said. "They need to be able to accommodate that."
Starting April 21, advisers' sites will have to be optimized to rank high in Google search results.
A website is deemed mobile-friendly when its text automatically resizes to adjust for various screen sizes. Advisers can determine whether their site is mobile-friendly with
a test provided by Google.
"This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results," Google wrote in
a blog post about the upcoming change. "Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices."
A
2013 report by Google on mobile use, found that 94% of smartphone users look for local information and 84% of those users take action thereafter, such as contacting a business.
Advisers with already established websites may need to consider moving away from static pages — pages that do little to foster interaction visitors.
According to Google, there are
three things to know when making a website mobile-friendly.
• Make it easy for customers
• Measure the effectiveness of your website by seeing how visitors can view your page
• Be consistent in your design for your website across all devices, like phones, websites and tablets
Google also offers
a guide to being more mobile-friendly.
Other factors to consider when trying to create a mobile-friendly site include writing text that's easy to find in search engines, having fewer photos and not relying on downloaded software like Javascript and Flash, which can potentially slow down a website's loading or become clunky on a mobile screen.
The move to embracing mobile-friendly sites will help Google sift through the infinite amount of content that floods through the web every day.
"It creates a specific identifier of a good site," Brian Kuhn, a financial adviser at
Planning Solutions Group Clarity in Fulton, Md., said.
This new algorithm "gives an opportunity to have a characteristic that not a majority of the sites have."
For those unfamiliar with building a website, it could cause some concern.
"It's a not a reason to panic," Jimmy Douglas, general manager of Smarsh Sites, a company that works with 5,000 financial advisers to create websites, said. "Websites are very cyclical and it's not uncommon for someone to build a new website every few years."
Financial advisers will simply need to make strides to become more visible on the web through search results.
"Websites are like modern day yellow pages," Chris Horton, a digital strategist at SyneCore Technolgies, said. "If you weren't in the yellow pages, people didn't do business with you. They didn't
trust you."
