Google Mobile-Friendly
Google is changing search results starting April 21st in a move that is likely to have a larger impact on websites traffic than “Panda” the codename for the February of 2011 update that impacted 12% of US search results. This upcoming change is different from previous changes that were supposed to take on “Content farms” and spam sites. This newest update takes on small and medium businesses, and those least likely to be generating money for Google.Google will be assigning penalties to websites that don’t get a passing score on their “Mobile Friendliness” automated test. This isn’t a test of how well your site works on a mobile phone, or if users like the experience. It is simply an automated code audit that evaluates the site based on the presence or lack of certain elements. As an example you could incur a penalty if the footer of the page has links that are too close together to be easy to click on, even if the links are things you would never likely click on like the “Site designed by”, and “Copyright” notices.
This isn’t about making results better, or reducing the amount of spam in results. It is about increasing the ad dollars Google makes.
Google has been criticized recently for its position of power with the White House. Many feel that the FTC has been soft on Google as a result of this relationship. It might have been easy to overlook this position of power if it weren’t for the fact that Google is about to make a change to search results that favors websites that link users to the Google app marketplace called “Play Store.”
While most of its users think of Google as a search company, what Google really sells is advertising. Google buys advertising from websites, it has maintained about 31.5% of online Ad Market share since 2012. Mobile browsing has surpassed web browsing recently, and Google owns 46% of the mobile ad market, most of that is in-app marketing, and the next two largest competitors, are Facebook and Twitter, who don’t compete outside of their apps.
On the 21st Google will also be rolling out a change that gives bonuses to sites that do deep linking into Android Apps. Deep Linking is when a user goes to a site and is prompted to ask which app they would like to open the page. You may have experienced this if you have been to IMDB for a celebrity search. The idea is supposed to be that the app would give you a better experience than the web version, but that is quite often not the case, or the app is just a wrapper for the web version.
Brandon Wirtz a top Search Engine Optimization expert at Black Water Ops said, “Google search results are worth billions, losing 2 places in search going from being number 1 to number 3 can cost a company half of its gross revenue, and for many businesses there is no reason for them to have an app.” The types of companies Wirtz is referring to are often small businesses. There is little reason for the local Thai food restaurant to have an App. Even a mobile site is likely not necessary. “One of the people I talk to routinely at Google said that mom and pops should just deep link to yelp,” explained Wirtz, “why a business would deep link to a page that features their competition or allows others to advertise on it is beyond me.”
Wirtz’s point is the exact thing Google is trying to have happen. Rather than going to a site for a given Thai restaurant, Google wants to extend the potential sales funnel out even when a user has landed on a site they would purchase from. Those ads have the highest value, and if they are in app, are more likely to be an ad they earn a commission on.
Google has unprecedented control over online markets, and while it used to worry about what was best for the users, it doesn’t have to do that anymore. With little to no competition in the search space (it has 75% of of US Search) and with strong ties to the White House protecting it from antitrust measures, Google can make decisions that have the greatest impact on its bottom line, and at the expense of small to medium business with no fear of repercussions or regulatory agencies.
If you want to know if your site’s ready for the April 21st update then test it here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
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