The Google update which many described as the Mobilegeddon and the algorithmic update to crash all SEO plans and in some cases (with big scary letters) even The Mopocalypse, launched about a month ago on the 21st of April, and though Google has said the planned update has finally rolled out in full, many webmasters are still saying that there has been no significant change. While this can be attributed to the frenzied buildup which may have pushed expectations to high, the truth remains that in this rapidly mobile-taxis world, if your website still hasn’t met with the standards necessitated by the update, then you are doing the first right thing in reading this article.
First off, you should know that it is not usual for Google to give ample warning before an update, but the fact that they did weeks and months before the day, was a sign that this was an update that was going to change the face of browsing forever, and while the earth has kept spinning on its tilted axis since the 21st of April, this has remained true. Google gave the announcement early so that publishers would have enough time to make the necessary changes, which is another reason why if you still haven’t effected these changes, then maybe you should look through your number of hits and ask yourself why you are suddenly falling behind.
What is the Google Mobilegeddon update?
This update is a mobile friendly update, (MF update like the Google guys say) which grants higher ranking to mobile friendly pages in the Google mobile search results. Basically, over time, the PC and the Mobile have gone in divergent ways with 30% of the search results in the US now coming directly from Mobiles. This has shown the rising important of Mobiles in Search. Websites that have pages which are not mobile friendly or responsive would be relegated in mobile searches. They may however retain their ranking in desktop searches. Already this has begun to affect mobile searches and we can see the dichotomy in mobile search as compared to desktop search, and while this would not affect the desktop searches, with the rising number of mobile users, it is only a matter of time before it impacts heavily on the non-mobile friendly sites.
What to do?
The solution is simple; upgrade your site specs to ensure that it is mobile friendly. You can find out if your site is mobile friendly in a very simple way. Part of the algorithm’s specifications include: a Google Mobile Friendly label for sites which are mobile friendly such that can appear even on desktop searches. If your site is not mobile friendly, then you should upgrade it to that standard as soon as possible.
Benefits
There are so many benefits associated with the new update and those who cash in quickly are most likely to make the most of it. For example, if you have a competitor that does not have a mobile friendly site, having one is sure to improve your ranking over that competitor for mobile searches, thus affording you an opportunity to gain control of a market. Another benefit lies in the ability to revive old content which was previously published under the old algorithm. Since the update focuses on pages, changing the content or updating content on an old page and then republishing after upgrading to a mobile site would improve ranking for that page.
This update has come to stay and updating your website to comply with the new algorithm’s guidelines is the best way to ride through Mobilegeddon and catch all the benefits that swirl around.