How Mobilegeddon Changed the Entire Search Landscape

If your website isn’t mobile friendly, then you may be in for a rough ride. Google’s search algorithm now favors ‘mobile-friendly’ sites that render properly on the smaller screen sizes of smartphones and tablets. This development is starting to shake up the rankings, delivering major blows to companies that have yet to adjust to the new mobile landscape. If you don’t act now, you will be giving traffic away to your competition.

What Caused the Mobilegeddon?

Google estimates that a good 50% of searches now come from mobile devices, via mobile browsers and search apps. But not all websites have been optimized for mobile platforms—and this causes a lot of frustration for users.

Since Google’s main business is to ensure that users are happy with the search results, they are now weeding out non-mobile optimized sites in favor of those that are. This means that websites designed for easy browsing, even from mobile devices will start to outrank those that aren’t.

Do You Really Need to Make Your Website Mobile Friendly?

The short answer is yes. There is no use in having great content if it cannot be displayed in a readable and easily digestible manner.

How Mobilegeddon Changed the Entire Search Landscape

Put yourself in the shoes of people who will visit your website using their smartphone. Do you find it extremely hard to navigate the site on a small screen? Do you need to zoom in and scroll around to be able to read the text? Do your pop-ups dominate the screen? Then your website is not optimized for mobile devices.  Your visitors are extremely frustrated when browsing your content—and they will leave without buying what you are offering.

What Should I Do Now?

Mobilegeddon has already hit thousands of small businesses that rely on Google to get traffic. Whether you’ve already been hit or are just starting to see your traffic decline, you need to act fast.

The good news is that you can get your rankings back—provided that you are willing to invest on responsive web design. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see how your website is doing, and the PageSpeed Insights Test to gain insights on what you need to fix from a technical standpoint. Your goal should be, to show Googlebot that your website is mobile friendly. To begin with, make sure that:

  • Your content can automatically resize to fit the user’s screen so that they don’t have to zoom in or scroll horizontally.
  • You do not use uncommon or unnecessary elements on the site, such as Flash.
  • Your text is easily readable without the need to zoom.
  • Your links are highly distinguishable and are far apart enough, so that users can easily tap the correct one.

These are just the basics. You might also need to simplify your page design, put critical information (such as your contact details) above the fold, and design big, easy-to-tap, and fat-finger-proof buttons.

Preparing for the Future

Ultimately, your goal should be to future-proof your site for new devices that may go mainstream in the next few years. Put website redesign on your priority list so that you are always ready to reach consumers not only via their laptops and PCs, but also on their phones, tablets, and more.

Let SEOValley™ Help You

SEO Valley can set you on the right path by implementing a comprehensive mobile search strategy for your website.

Many months before Mobilegeddon, we have already applied mobile best practices to our clients’ websites to ensure that they survive this update.

SEOValley™ conducted a massive audit to determine which websites needed treatment. Our teams then planned and executed the necessary improvements—whether it was creating a new mobile site or making the current site responsive.

We also planned proper re-directs to ensure that mobile users land on the correct (mobile) version of the site. Finally, we checked and made sure that important site files such as Javascript, CSS, and images were not blocked for the site to render properly on mobile phones and appear correctly for Googlebot.

Don’t swim against the tide. Mobile is the new reality. Talk to us at SEOValley™ to discuss your options moving forward.