Mobilegeddon is upon us, and the very nickname says everything you need to know about concerns over Google’s new formula for showing search results on smartphones. Google released sweeping changes to its search algorithm on Tuesday 21st April 2015, giving mobile-friendly websites a boost on smartphones.
In a nutshell, this update:
• have an effect on only search rankings on mobile devices
• have an effect on search results in all languages globally
• be valid to individual pages, not entire websites
This is one of the biggest changes to the Google algorithm in years, so it’s one to take very seriously. From Tuesday 21 April 2015, a site’s “mobile friendliness” will now play a key role in the way it is ranked, and sites that are not mobile optimised will appear lower down on Google’s search pages.
With mobile search growing at 10 times the rate of desktop, businesses that don’t have mobile ready site tend to lose up to 1/3rd of their traffic. More than two thirds of Fortune 100 companies are not considered mobile friendly, according to research firm SumAll, so this is set to have a big impact.
How to check if my website is mobile friendly:
To check if your site is mobile-friendly, you can examine individual pages with the Mobile-Friendly Test or check the status of your entire site through the Mobile Usability report in Webmaster Tools. If your site’s pages aren’t mobile-friendly, there may be a significant decrease in mobile traffic from Google search. But don’t panic, once your site becomes mobile-friendly, Google will automatically re-process (i.e., crawl and index) your pages.
Website operators have two months to prepare.
Unlike previous algorithm tweaks, websites can upgrade their “mobile-friendliness” at any time to appear higher in Google’s search results — it doesn’t have to be done by Tuesday 21 April 2015. Google also said that the algorithm tweaks will be rolled out over the course of a few weeks, so the changes might not immediately be noticeable anyway.
This change clearly has ranging effects on different types of businesses. It will hurt businesses that rely heavily on search for sales and businesses that rely on local search for foot-fall, such as cafés and restaurants, could suffer badly too. But you don’t need to be apprehension, help is at hand and it doesn’t mean scrapping your website. In most cases it just means redesigning what you have and take this as an opportunity.
While Google will be checking every page, it’s worth noting that the algorithm is applied page-by-page and not to the whole site – very important. What this means is that as different pages become mobile friendly they can start to benefit from the SEO boost offered by this update. Web Leap expert’s advice would be to focus on your homepage and commonly used areas of the site if you’re not in the position to give a mobile friendly face-lift.
Google will also be taking into account the usability of a site – so how many clicks it takes to perform a particular task – meaning that avoiding long-winded processes for making purchases or bookings should help enhance mobile SEO.
In the long term, however, responsive web design and having a site that adapts easily to a mobile or tablet environment will be the key for the future online businesses.
If you would like to speak to one of our experts, please contact us on 01772 508117 who will be happy to provide you all the help you need for your website to become mobile friendly.