Mobilegeddon Has Landed… What is the Impact?

Mobilegeddon has arrived, and if your website has seen a sudden drop in traffic, it is probably because your website is not mobile-friendly and needs an urgent, immediate overhaul. Google announced in February that they would be releasing a mobile algorithm that would impact which websites showed up in a mobile search. Websites that are not mobile-friendly may see a rapid drop in their ranking and mobile traffic.

In a statement, Google said they want users to “find content that’s not only relevant and timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens.” As a result, Google said the impact on mobile search results will be significant.

Time will show exactly how many businesses will suffer from this latest algorithm change. When Panda was released, it impacted around 11% of all search results.
To put it in a financial perspective, Demand Media lost $6.4 million in 2012 due to the Panda algorithm change, and that’s just one company. Analysts have been trying to predict how various industries will be impacted by Mobilegeddon with TechCrunch finding that Fortune 500 companies had a 44% fail rate on the mobile-friendly test. Other sites like ClickZ found that only 25% of large-cap companies failed. The results vary wildly based on the specific industries that you test.

Why should this matter to you and your business?

If your business has a mobile-friendly site and your competition doesn’t, you could potentially skyrocket up in rankings while they hit rock bottom. Google’s algorithms are never simplistic so there is no way to mathematically determine exactly how it will play out for your specific business. However, if you are in an industry where a large portion of businesses do not have a mobile-friendly site, this is a clear opportunity that you can use to grow your business.

The statistics say it all. Over half of the searches conducted on Google are done using a mobile device. Consider this – are you prepared to have your ranking drop in a mobile search? How would this impact your specific business?

A frightening question remains if you don’t know where the visitors to your site are coming from (desktop or mobile. After all, if you receive a large portion of your business from a mobile search, you cannot afford to have a traditional website any longer. Instead, we recommend that you switch to a responsive design website immediately. This type of website will change how it appears based on the size of the screen it is being viewed on. As an added perk, you only need to have one site built instead of maintaining a desktop and mobile version.

If you are unsure of whether or not your site is responsive, mobile-friendly, or if it would pass Google’s test, you can check on Google’s mobile friendly test page. If your website is showing errors or failing the test, we recommend that you call us right away to have your new website created before you lose revenue due to a drop in your mobile search ranking.