Will I loose traffic after the Google Mobile update?

Google Mobile update April 21st 2015

Is this a big fuss about nothing?  Have you been receiving numerous scare emails from foreign web designers offering to re-design your website in a mobile friendly format?

Let's have a look at some real life examples.  Take this website Antique Maps Online, as the name suggests, this is an ecommerce website selling antique maps and the main demographic of its customers would be in the 40 to 65 age bracket.  Surprisingly, even with this older demographic, 27% of visitors are using mobile devices (16% tablet, 11% mobile)
By contrast Therapy Hair and Beauty, a hair dressing salon, has a much younger demo graph and the mobile devices account for 49% of visitors (13 % tablet, 36% mobile).

Here is Google's general advice.  'Because global web traffic from mobile devices is on the rise, and recent studies show that mobile visitors are more likely to revisit mobile-friendly sites, mobile usability is now relevant for optimal search results.'

Here are the areas in which Google will be looking for improvements:

• A defined viewing area (or viewport) that adjusts to the device’s screen size.
• Content that flows in the viewport, so that users don’t have to scroll horizontally or pinch the screen in order to see the entire page.
• Fonts that scale for easier reading on small screens.
• Easy-to-touch elements (e.g., buttons) that are well-spaced from other touch elements.
• Visual design and motion driven by mobile-friendly technology.

So how much reduction in traffic can you expect? Well, that is difficult to say until after April 21st, but Google is already flagging mobile friendly websites in their organic search results.
There will definitely be consequences for your non-mobile friendly pages and so any loss of traffic will be proportional the number of these.

Mobile phones are getting larger and more sophisticated, increasing accessibility to 4G will also encourage greater usage and more and more manufacturers are entering tablet market.

The future is mobile, start planning now.