Mobilegeddon is Coming.
Written by: Alicia Kea
Mobilegeddon! Google warns all sites must be mobile-friendly by April 21st
In its infinite wisdom, Google has now decided that if your website is not designed/coded to be “mobile-friendly” (aka “responsive”) then it will not be listed highly in their mobile search engine. Their reasoning makes a bit of sense in that so many of us use mobile phones and tablets these days and non-mobile (“non-responsive”) websites are hard to use on these devices.This doesn’t necessarily mean your site will no longer appear in Google mobile search results, but simply that mobile or responsive sites will be given priority in the rankings.
Google says this change will not affect Google's desktop search engine. But they just mean they're not currently adding mobile-friendliness to their desktop search engine algorithm. But your desktop ranking will indirectly be affected. How? Google will notice a reduction in your website traffic and also in social media sharing and mentions of your site. These factors directly affect your Google desktop ranking. So it will in fact affect your position on Google's desktop search engine too. Also, are you willing to almost disappear to people using a phone or tablet device?
What should you do if your site isn’t mobile or “responsive”? Seriously consider having it re-coded to be “responsive,” and soon. Fortunately Avenue 25 can do this for you and it typically costs considerably less than having a whole new site developed. When building a new website we always encourage the client to spend just a little more so we can make the site responsive. Unfortunately not all have done so, and now Google has made it an important part of their search algorithm, so.... it’s time to upgrade or get left behind.
Big changes in Google's mobile search algorithm are on the way this month:
“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.”
Finding more mobile-friendly search results
Does your website meet Google's requirements for mobile friendliness? Try it here: Mobile-friendly test.
Read up on the industry chatter about this huge and aggressive change with the links to 4 well known industry sites below. If you need help updating your website to meet the Google changes, contact the Avenue 25 team. It's what we do.
Google has a long history of famous algorithm updates. If you’re not in the search or marketing industry, you may be unaware that these algorithm changes happen on a regular basis. Here is a summary of previous Google algorithm updates:
- Google Hummingbird
- Google Panda Update
- Google Penguin Update
- Google Pigeon Update
- Google Payday Update
- Google Pirate Update
- Google EMD (Exact Match Domain) Update
- Google Top Heavy Update