By Jay Taylor, from Home – SearchEngineWatch – http://bit.ly/1vEGzsD

Some organizations are still resistant to having a mobile-friendly website, either because they lack the resources or don’t see the value. If your organization falls into this category, and you would like to continue being relevant in 2015 on the most widely used search engine in the world, Google, then now is the time to begin building a mobile-friendly website.

Here are three reasons your organization must have a mobile-friendly website in 2015.

Reason 1: Increased Mobile Visits

Now that Google labels websites that are optimized for mobile as “mobile-friendly” within its mobile search results, failing to have a mobile-friendly website can have a negative impact on your website’s click-through rate (CTR). Think about it this way. If a user performs a search with their mobile device, and four of the top five results have a “mobile-friendly” label, all else being equal, the mobile user will give preference to the four results that Google identifies as being mobile-friendly. The effect of this over time is less click-throughs for the website that is not mobile-friendly, and more click-throughs for the websites that are.

Fortunately, Google provides a tool that allows website owners to test if their website is mobile-friendly. If a website passes this test, it will receive the “mobile-friendly” designation.

Reason 2: Higher Mobile Rankings

Google already penalizes websites in mobile search that are not mobile-friendly to ensure that websites which are mobile-friendly rank higher and provide mobile searchers with a better user-experience. However, Google now appears to be taking this a step further by using the “mobile-friendly” designation as a ranking factor to promote sites that are optimized for mobile, in addition to demoting those that are not.

Consider this quote from the Google blog post that announced the new “mobile-friendly” labels:

“We see these labels as a first step in helping mobile users to have a better mobile web experience. We are also experimenting with using the mobile-friendly criteria as a ranking signal.”

Reason 3: Increased Revenue From Mobile

If increasing rankings and click-throughs to your website isn’t enough incentive to be mobile-friendly, hopefully lost revenue is. Lacking a mobile-friendly website at a time when so many searchers use mobile devices to find products and services they need is essentially handing customers over to your competition.

The bottom line is that failing to have a mobile-friendly website is most likely already resulting in lost revenue for your organization. Consumers are becoming less and less willing to put up with poor user-experiences on their mobile devices because organizations fail to adapt to changing expectations. Your prospective customers will find the path of least resistance, and that path will lead straight to your competitors in 2015 if they have a mobile-friendly website, and your organization does not.

Conclusion

Make sure your organization has a successful SEO strategy in 2015 with a mobile-friendly website, and benefit from more click-throughs, higher rankings, and most importantly, increased revenue.