The long awaited Google algorithm toted as Mobile-Geddon is expected today – April 21, 2015, as promised by Google. In recent weeks, Mobile-Geddon was likened to Armageddon because of how “apocalyptic” it could affect millions of website search results.
So what is Mobile-Geddon you say? If your website traffic suddenly plummets today, you can blame it on “Mobile-Geddon”.
Google, which dominates online search, is launching a new algorithm to favor sites that are “mobile-friendly.” More specifically – this translates to websites that are “mobile-responsive”. This means that people who use Google to search on their smartphone or tablet may not find many of their favorite websites at the top of the rankings. Websites that haven’t updated to a mobile responsive design might find themselves ranked much lower, which in turn might mean a huge loss of business.
Google announced these impending changes back in February, giving webmasters nearly two months and plenty of information to make the changes necessary to keep their sites from disappearing from mobile search results. Even so, the update is still expected to cause a major ranking shake-up. CLICK HERE to read a great article from Business Insider on this big change today by Google.
Search giant Google – which comScore Media Metrix estimates has 65% of the US market share of Internet searches, wants web sites to load quickly and be easy to navigate on a mobile device.
In a statement from Google, they noted that they were doing this because they want consumers to “find content that’s not only relevant and timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens”.
This update is not expected to affect results from desktop searches.
In an official report from comScore, they are quoted as saying “While social networking does not rank at the very top of this list among the most mobile-skewing content categories, it is arguably the most important. The #1 category in terms of overall digital engagement accounting for 20% of total digital time spent, social networking now generates more than 70% of its activity on mobile.
When considering the category’s contribution to total digital ad spending, its rapid shift to mobile marks an important sign of the times for the Internet economy.”
The comScore report adds that:
- Mobile activity on social media has grown by 55 percent over the past year.
- It has also accounted for 31 percent of all growth in Internet activity over the same period.
- Facebook alone accounts for 24 percent of all mobile activity online and its primary app is responsible for 18 percent.
The report provides a whole new perspective on the importance of social media marketing for your business, especially on sites like Facebook – which this article doesn’t specifically address – but does support the overall conclusion that if your website is not mobile responsive – if your website is “not relevant and timely and also easy to read and interact with smaller mobile devices” – the traffic that you’ve depended on from your website may well be significantly affected.
Finally, it’s important to note that Google’s last big algorithm update, code-named Panda, impacted 11% of ALL SEARCH RESULTS. Per Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand, this newest algorithm change from Google (expected today) could be even more dramatic than when Google released Panda.
For more information about upgrading your non-mobile responsive website to comply with Google’s latest algorithm, contact North Texas Web Design, a Plano, Texas based web design firm – give us a call at 972-474-7035.