Mobilegeddon

Don’t shoot the messenger. You’ve been hearing that having a mobile-friendly website would get you more customers for a while now. And now it’s time to pay the piper—er, rather, Google.

Google announced a few months ago that it would begin putting more emphasis in search results on sites that work well on tablets and smartphones. That day arrived April 21, and many people dubbed it Mobilegeddon since it’s all but demolished mobile traffic for many brands. Many businesses are panicking because they’re being disincluded from mobile search results. And with the majority of Internet users searching from their mobile devices, that’s a pretty substantial loss in traffic, they’re discovering.

So we’re seeing a flood of brands scurrying to get more mobile-friendly ASAP.

Why Being Mobile-Friendly Matters

I don’t suppose you’ve ever searched for a website on your phone and ended up on a page that rendered wonkily. Maybe you had to scroll across to find the menu. Or some of the images didn’t display. Older content management systems weren’t equipped to be responsive to different devices, and now we see why that’s important.

If you want, first of all, to show up in search results, your page needs to be adaptable to whatever device it’s displayed on. Second, you should care about this because a mobile-friendly version of your site increases the likelihood of mobile users buying from you or converting on a landing page. And you want that, don’t you?

The implementation of this algorithm that decides whether or not your site is mobile-friendly is still so new, we don’t have data on how big a drop in traffic it can cause, but assume if you rank well in standard search results, you will see a dip in where you rank on mobile devices.

How Does Your Site Stack Up?

Before I send you into a tailspin, see if your site is mobile-friendly by running this test from Google, or talk to a website professional. Chances are, if your site was designed in the past few years or on a platform like WordPress, it is mobile-friendly.

If your site doesn’t pass the test, Google will make some suggestions. Take them!

If your site isn’t considered mobile-friendly, talk to your web designer about upgrading to a responsive theme. If you use WordPress for your site, check out plugins that will make your site more accessible on phones and tablets.

The key here is to act quickly. You can’t afford to lose traffic or sales to this change, and it’s a good idea to make your site more accessible to everyone anyway.

Want a professional opinion? Contact us for a free website assessment today.