Did you know that 80% of internet users now use their smart phones to search for information online?
Google knows this (let’s be honest, Google knows everything) that’s why they released their algorithm update “Mobilegeddon” on April 21st 2015.
So, what is Mobilegeddon?
As a search engine, Google’s primary goal is to provide their users a great experience. One of the ways they do this is by displaying the “best” possible search result on the Internet based on answering a users search query.
Google use a whole heap of different factors to weigh and compare results looking for the best ones, and a big part of this revolves around the idea of site usability – both on desktop and mobile devices. It’s frustrating when you search for something on your phone or tablet, and click on one of the top results, only to be taken to a site that’s too awkward to navigate because it isn’t mobile responsive.
That’s where Google new update came in.
Mobilegeddon, as the algorithm’s creative title implies, focuses on the usability of a website for mobile devices, making this a critical ranking factor for websites on Google’s results pages. The roll out took about a week to take full effect, and now, two months later in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, we find out just how much it affected search results.
The impact of Mobilegeddon
Earlier this month at SMX Advanced, Google’s Gary Illyes stated that the update had a bigger impact on search results than Panda and Penguin combined.
Stone Temple Consulting (STC) undertook a study of the top 10 search results for over 15,000 search queries a week before the update hit, and then again a month later. The results showed that 47% of non-mobile friendly sites dropped in ranking, and that 30% of mobile responsive sites increased in ranking.
As a result, STC recorded that prior to the update; there were 56,164 non-mobile friendly URL’s. A month later, they saw this number decrease to 54,162, indicating that over 2,000 URL’s had been affected, with the search favouring the mobile responsive results.
In a similar study, BrightEdge tracked 20,000 URL’s after the update. They found a 21% decrease in the amount of non-mobile friendly URL’s on the first three pages of Google’s search results. However, only 17% of URL’s decreased in ranking from page one.
This smaller decrease could be due to second and third page results having weaker ranking factors, making mobile responsiveness more influential on search results.
How to recover if you were affected by Mobilegeddon
If your site was affected by Mobilegeddon, you can recover in time by making your website work better for mobile users.
Here are some quick tips to keep in mind:
- Avoid using plugins like flash as it’s not supported by Apple phones.
- Ensure that text and imagery is properly sized for mobile devices.
- Make sure everything is viewable and properly fits on the screen.
- Ensure you space out your links and make them big enough for people’s thumbs to press.
- Check your site with Google’s mobile responsive testing tool to see what else you can improve.
Check out other ways to make your site mobile responsive.
Having a mobile responsive website provides a better user experience for site visitors, which will lead to more time spent on site and an increased chance of generating new business and word of mouth.
Need help optimising your website? Contact Assemblo today.
Phone (03) 9079 2555, email [email protected] or get in touch by filling out the form below: