Mobilegeddon Coming April 21st!

Google will be changing their algorithms on April 21 and websites that are not mobile-friendly (phones and tablets) will be negatively impacted in search results. What will this mean for you and your business? Scope of the Update If you’re aware that Google already considers mobile usability as part of its ranking calculations, you might wonder why this April 21 deadline, dubbed “mobilegeddon,” is important. It’s true that many of Google’s “updates” are actually just data refreshes and tweaks that hold little bearing on existing search rankings. However, Zineb Ait Bahajji, a member of Google’s Webmaster Trends team, was quoted at SMX Munich as saying that the new mobile-friendly algorithm change will have more of an impact on search rankings than either Panda or Penguin, two of the largest and most impactful search algorithm updates Google has ever launched. For now, we don’t know much about the update itself, so it’s not entirely clear what that impact will be. We do know that it will change the way Google evaluates the mobile-friendliness of websites, but we don’t know what new factors will be added or how dramatically these factors will be able to change a website’s search visibility. Given Bahajji’s comments, it’s reasonable to guess that the majority of non-optimized sites on the web could see significant decreases in search visibility. The Trend toward Mobile Search By some estimates, more than 60 percent of all Google searches are now performed on mobile devices, so it makes sense that Google wants to capitalize on this traffic and ensure the best possible experience for its users. For more information, feel free to visit Entrepreneur.com. So what can you do to make sure that your website search results don’t suffer – and more importantly – that you are giving users the best experience possible since so many are using mobile devices to find your business?

• Update your Website to be Mobile-Friendly and Responsive: Sites we currently design from scratch work equally well on desktops as they do on mobile devices (automatically adjust to different screen sizes, etc.). Is it time for a complete re-design? If it’s been more than a couple of years, the answer is probably yes.
• Have us Create a Mobile Site for You: This creates a separate mobile version of your website vs. having one website that is both mobile-friendly and desktop friendly.

Many of our clients choose to go with option 2 given that it is less expensive, works well for visitors, and adheres to Google’s requirements. The only arguments against it is on occasion you (or we) will have to check to ensure that any changes to your desktop site and carried over to the mobile version. And if it’s been a while since you last had your site designed, it may be worth the investment to do a new one that looks better, works better, and adheres to new mobile requirements. What would you like to do? Give us a call at 608-519-3070. April 21 is fast approaching!