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As we speak Google is in the midst of rolling out their Mobile-First Update. As always on the net their are many individual interpretations of what the update is about and how it will effect you. I checked out Google Webmaster's explanation and following excerpt is courtesy of https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing

"Best practices for mobile-first indexing

Mobile-first indexing means Google will predominantly use the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. Historically, the index primarily used the desktop version of a page's content when evaluating the relevance of a page to a user's query. Since the majority of users now access Google via a mobile device, the index will primarily use the mobile version of a page's content going forward. We aren't creating a separate mobile-first index. We continue to use only one index. With mobile-first indexing, Googlebot primarily crawls and indexes pages with the smartphone agent. We will continue to show the URL that is the most appropriate to users (whether it's a desktop or mobile URL) in Search results. As we said, we transition sites slowly to ensure a good experience for site owners and users. We evaluate each site individually on its readiness for mobile-first indexing based on the best practices and transition the site when the site is ready.

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Another interesting excerpt from Google courtesy of https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html

"To recap:

Mobile-indexing is rolling out more broadly. Being indexed this way has no ranking advantage and operates independently from our mobile-friendly assessment.

Having mobile-friendly content is still helpful for those looking at ways to perform better in mobile search results.

Having fast-loading content is still helpful for those looking at ways to perform better for mobile and desktop users.

As always, ranking uses many factors. We may show content to users that’s not mobile-friendly or that is slow loading if our many other signals determine it is the most relevant content to show.

We’ll continue to monitor and evaluate this change carefully.

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My take on all of this is ... While Google is down-playing any thoughts that mobile-first indexing will not affect organic rankings, in time we will find that mobile performance will totally guide organic ranking results so I strongly suggest to all local business website owners to get your house in order now. By following my advice you could avoid a sharp drop in rankings when mobile does control ranking factors. It is as simple as this, don't worry what Google is doing or might affect, it just makes sense that with the bulk of website viewers using mobile devices these days that we should ensure we are delivering the best mobile experience we can to keep our business thriving and derail any chance of ranking or sales dipping on us and affecting our sales. If you would like a full complimentary web audit that covers both desktop and mobile metrics then please go to our contact page and request an audit via our online form. You will not only get back an unbiased audit, but a quote to fix whatever problems you might have and we will even tell you what you need to do if perhaps your budget is tight and you want to do it yourself.      

While most local business owners are just trying to get on with doing business and trying to get ahead Google continue to roll out updates that determine where sites rank in organic search. Google have been taking interest in page load speed for a while now and depending who you are listening too will vary how much influence on your organic search results page load speed will affect you. From what I can make out of all this is that the slowest loading websites will lose any organic ranking they had, but at this stage it's not going to play a big part in determining your rankings. However, common sense will tell you that if your web pages are taking a while to load then the odds are very high that your potential web visitor is going to bail out anyway and probably end up at your opposition's website. So with that being said you should address any concerns of slow loading pages right now before it gets out of hand. Drop us a note by clicking on this link if you have concerns and want DKG to assess what is required and sort it out for you. We will assess it and give you a quote for us to fix it for you, we will even tell you how to go about improving speed yourself if the budget is a bit tight. Either way it is in your best interest to talk to us about it. Want to check what Google thinks about your page load speed? Go here and enter your website to get a rating. What did you score? Feedback I have been getting on this suggests your desktop should be 75 or above, and your mobile should be no less than 65, but obviously the higher the score the better.