If you’re even remotely associated with the web building and developing side or have had a website built, you might have heard the terms Panda and Penguin. In the SEO world, these were mini Y2K moments.
Google’s algorithm updates are regular and customary, they usually tweak and refine their algorithms to improve search engine results.
But the April 21st, one is the only update they announced about almost a year back. They even attached a tentative date to it because mobile-usability has been an important factor in their search mechanism for years and with 60% of people accessing websites through their phone, this update was imminent.
44% of the Fortune 500 websites are NOT ready for it!
What does Mobilegeddon mean for you?
Called ‘Mobilegeddon’ this upcoming update is a grave issue. In their blog, Google uses strong words to establish what the update means for mobile sites.
“The change will affect searches in all languages and will have a significant impact on our search results”
Ziben Ait Bahajji, a key member of Google’s Webmaster Trends reiterated the magnitude of this, quoting it to be more impactful than Panda and Penguin combined.Such statements are never thrown casually and if you have a website with a mobile-friendly version you need to pay attention to this.
In layman’s term, how does Mobilegeddon affect your mobile web page?
Consider this- you have a website that retails prom dresses online. Now anyone looking for a prom dress would sneakily take out their phone in the middle of a class and search for prom dresses online.
The search result puts forth your website. So they come to your website, find a great prom dress and buy. Voila! A sale!
After the Mobilegeddon update, if your website does not fall under the purview of this update- if Google does not think that your website is mobile-friendly- it will NOT show up on the search results.
Your highly optimized website will not appear on the mobile search list after the update. And given that 60% people browse websites through their phone you will lose out on huge amounts of traffic.
Hey, mine is a B2B website, so I’m safe right?
Let’s just start with this common misconception here. If you’re retailing B2B goods say hydraulic lift that’s used for industrial work, you won’t have school kids searching for it.
That’s right, but a good number of people who are searching for hydraulic lift online with the intention of purchasing one, is doing so on their mobile. In a survey report by IDG, 75% of B2B influencers and decision makers use their Smartphone to watch the work-related video. And 57% use it to browse work-specific information after working hours.
Even if we keep these numbers aside for a minute, the main concern for any website – B2B or B2B- is traffic. And any website whether it is an e-commerce website or a blog, it needs traffic to survive like fish needs water.
It’s simple!
Okay, I get it Mobilegeddon is important and I’m a little freaked out too. Now, what do I do to not be penalized by Google?
The first thing you need to do is check the mobile-friendliness of your website. Click on the link, enter your website URL and hit Analyze.
If Google considers your website as mobile friendly, it’d basically look like this:
If it is not mobile friendly, here’s how it shows up. Note that the reason why Google doesn’t deem it to be mobile friendly is also mentioned on the page.
If your website is mobile friendly, you can close thispage and uncork some wine. If it isn’t we have a problem that you have to work on a rather immediate basis.
How to make your website mobile-friendly in the wake of Mobilegeddon?
The first thing you need to focus on is the timeline. There is a need to salvage the situation right now before it gets too late. Once you get the report on the mobile-friendliness and usability, get working on it right away
Creating a separate mobile website
The whole idea is to improve user experience on mobile devices. Your mobile website is not just an ‘also on’ but an ‘add on’. It needs to be an additive feature so getting a separate mobile website created makes sense.
It is easier to design plus unlike a mobile version of the website, this can be completely customized strictly keeping mobile users in mind. There is one downside to this though- the overall cost goes up as you have to pay maintenance and also pay extra for additional content on your website. It’s like operating two websites at once.
Creating a responsive mobile version of your website
A responsive website layout adjusts your website to be compatible with every device. It’s like water taking the shape of the container.
To check if your website is responsive or not, just shrink it in size and if the text and images realign to fit in then yours is a responsive layout. If the content breaks midway, then it is not.
A responsive website is cheaper in the sense that there are no recurring major costs but an upfront and higher initial cost. So from an investment point of view, creating a responsive website is an economical option.
However, it has been reported that responsive websites don’t convert as well as individual mobile websites.
Let us help you
If you want the technical aspects to be handled by the expert, let us do it for you.
Besides creating a separate or a responsive websites, there are also a number of SEO methodologies that can help improve the mobile-friendliness of your website and prevent your website from getting penalized by Google.
We are already helping a staggeringly high number of clients to deal with this impending Mobilegeddon. Click here to get in touch with us and we can help you out to make your store mobile friendly.
