Today is April, 21st, and Google is rolling out one of the most impactful algorithm updates in its history. Websites of all sizes, from major brands to small businesses will face the possibility of losing their search rankings, thus, losing traffic, and ultimately, losing revenue as a result.
As mobile traffic increases and desktop traffic decreases, Google is going to penalize sites that are not responsive. This means, if your site isn’t optimized for a mobile device, your rankings will be lower than other sites that are.
SEO experts have dubbed this update, Mobilegeddon.
Are you ready for it?
What You Need to Know About Google’s Mobilegeddon
Surprisingly, there are a lot of sites for recognizable brands that will be hit hard with this update. According to USA Today, brands such as California Kitchen, Versace, Sees Candy, and even European airline, Ryanair, are all failing the mobile test.
This means those brands, unless they upgrade their site to be mobile friendly, will see their traffic start to fall as their ranking in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) go down.
And if those brands are facing the gavel of Google’s judgment, small businesses won’t get a pass either.
Fortune 500 Companies Aren’t Ready
According to this TechCrunch article:
- This Google update will affect over 40% of Fortune 500 companies’ websites.
- Mobile smartphone users will surpass 1.9 billion in 2015. By 2018, one-third of consumers worldwide will use smartphones.
- Organic search traffic, those who come from search engine results, like Google, account for 43% of mobile web traffic.
- On smartphone-optimized sites, mobile traffic accounted for 25% of all revenue.
With that being said, only 52% currently have mobile-friendly websites!
Why?
The only answer to that question must be ignorance or arrogance. Companies are either ignorant of their web presence, and the power it yields of their business, or they are arrogant in thinking they are beyond the effects of Mobilegeddon.
Unresponsive Websites Abort Possible Mobile Revenue
Samuel Edwards , an article on Inc.com, states that 50% of all local searches are from mobile devices. Yet, 50% of all websites are mobile-friendly. This is why unresponsive mobile sites suffer bounce rates from 65-90%
Think about that.
Is your website bouncing up to 90% of your possible customers, simply because the user experience is horrible? If your site doesn’t have a good mobile experience, the answer is probably, yes.
With or without the Google update, it is simply intelligent to have a mobile responsive website. Without it, you’re leaving customers, and money, on the table.
In a Fortune article, an SEO expert was quoted as saying:
“Come April 21, a lot of small businesses are going to be surprised that the number of visitors to their websites has dropped significantly. This is going to affect millions of sites on the web.”
How to Prepare and Adapt for Mobilegeddon
Here are some resources that will help you better prepare for the SERPS slaughter that’s starting today.
From Moz: 9 Things You Need to Know About Google’s Mobile-Friendly Update
Also, check out their history of Google algorithm updates here.
From Search Engine Land: The Mobilegeddon Checklist
From Google: The Developers’ Guide to Mobile-Friendly Websites
Are You Ready?
This update will affect sites starting today, and it’s only going to continue down this road. As mobile search increases, so must our focus on mobile user experience.
Here’s a tool to test your site to see if it’s ready for Mobilegeddon. If it fails this test, you fall into the category of over 40% of Fortune 500 companies. This means you’re in a bad spot, and you need to upgrade your website to be mobile-friendly.
Lean Labs can help you with this of course. Otherwise, those resources above will set you on the right path to protecting yourself from this SERP slaughter.
Ryan's experience ranges from higher education to SMBs and tech startups. When not doing digital marketing, he's sure to be enjoying some kind of nerdy pastime.
