Hi Bo. What I found was the numbers of people using mobile devices to access the internet were pretty astonishing. Like NorCal says below...people will leave the site if they can't navigate it easily. I do a lot of research on my phone and unresponsive sites just get the flick. Mobile usage stats from 2014 are here http://thecashedupnomad.com/make-your-website-mobile-friendly-on-a-budget

What I noticed about this, is when I'm at work and it's break time and I'm trying to look stuff up, I bounce right off a site that is not mobile friendly. I can't read it, it's just too hard. Those sites might rank on searches, but once the user gets on and can't read it, they're off the site and go on to one that is mobile friendly. It's just the times.

I have not got a site to check right now, but I think it could have a huge impact on it.

Bo,

I believe that the question that should be asked at this time is the number of people are using mobile devices to access the net.

Is it 5%, 10% of traffic or is it more?

Based on the answer to that question you can make a business decision.

BTW, All my sites are already compliant to this new charade.

The problems seem to be mainly in websites that are written in HTML so most WAs won't need to worry as long as their theme is mobile friendly. The main concern for people using WordPress is having large images which take longer to load. ~Marion

It is fairly easy to switch to a Responsive theme and change adsense over to responsive. That alone will prevent any substantial traffic loss. You can use the Goolge developers tool mobile readiness to get further help as to what might need to be improved after that. This is a lot longer process and would be chargeable work.

I just want to say that this is something I wouldn't really take lightly. Even if we pretend there is no drop in rankings there is a def large spike in the number of people searching for stuff on their phones especially LOCAL businesses.

When I am out and about I def use google (heck even in my living room when im too lazy to move to my computer) to check out places on my phone and this means if your site isnt mobile friendly you are losing out on a lot of potential customers as the numbers continue to increase for people searching on tablets and smart phones.

Inevitably this would mean you will eventually lose out on what everyone is trying to get, not only traffic, but traffic that actually wants to stay on your site. When i run into sites that dont load properly on the phone i instantly leave. plain and simple. So will they go out of business, doubt it, but are they missing out. yes i think so.

The one site I didn't make mobile friendly actually lost most of its rankings today. It went from being in the first two pages for almost every keyword to not even in the first 20 pages. So I am working on that one right now...because well that is a huge noticeable problem for me since those rankings had been sitting the same for months and months with no problem.

With that being said I have seen a few people in chat mention that their rankings suddenly sky rocketed for some of their stuff, though knowing how fickle google is it could very well be a coincidence but there is also a good chance that its because other sites have fallen with the changes. I think one day in though is kind of hard to tell unless your site already gets a substantial amount of traffic but I would be interested to see people's opinions in a week or two.

Sorry for the rambling =)
Jean

I believe the reality is that mobile is here to stay.
People that do not make their sites mobile friendly
will certainly lose a good share of surf traffic.
That being said, I do not think the effect on
local business will be devastating. Not at this point.

As someone who creates websites and apps for clients i actually see it as a good way to create income as it has meant more local businesses are now looking more seriously at apps and mobile websites from me.