There have been numerous warnings advising of an impending mobile revolution that has been gathering pace for years, whilst non-believers have foolishly remained loyal to a website from the past and resisted the urge to invest in their online presence.
However, Google will begin promoting mobile friendly websites today and the others that are not so welcoming to mobile devices will be left to slide down the search rankings, leaving the unsympathetic to utter the words "I told you so" in what is being dubbed Mobilegeddon or Mobilepocalypse.
Although many will welcome this news with open arms and scoff at those who didn’t make the investment to revamp their website and ensure that it appears just as appealing on a mobile device, but the harsh reality is there are many small businesses or online retailers who have failed to see the writing on the wall and will soon be witnessing a dramatic decrease in their traffic.
Before everyone reaches for the panic button and sends a message to their CEO, there is a quick and easy way to see if your website is affected by the changes thanks to the kind people at Google who have provided a page where you can see if your business website passes the test.
All you need to do is enter your URL to confirm that your website is indeed mobile-friendly and even in the event it fails, there are some handy tips on exactly what you need to do in order to enable Google’s secret search algorithms to pick up your website again.
The worst offenders causing the test to fail seem to consist of having text that is too small to read on mobile devices or the annoying problem of links being just too darn close together when looking at a smaller screen.
Many companies have traditionally spent significant amounts of money to bolster their position in search rankings, whilst also securing the ultimate prize and kudos of appearing on the first page of Google’s results, but many have neglected to invest in making the website itself mobile-friendly.
In a world where approximately 60 percent of all Google searches are performed on mobile devices, these controversial but needed changes will leave a large number of businesses licking their wounds in the next few weeks after failing to heed the warning back in February.
UK newspaper the Guardian was quick to point out with a hint of delight that the world’s largest English-language news site Mail Online has never introduced a mobile-friendly front page and will face a significant drop in traffic, but the Mail acted quickly to rectify this to save any further embarrassment.
However, this was an interesting moment where a business within the same industry happily exploited the weakness of a competitor and cannot help but feel this could be a watershed moment.
Some will question the power wielded by Google, who can effectively dictate what every website in the world must do in order to bring visitors through the doors, but is this just a simple case of evolving and adapting to our surroundings in a quest to find a seamless browsing experience as we hop from device to device.
The predictions for the so-called Mobilepocalypse will consist of a gradual decrease in traffic to the company website, followed by the phone not ringing as frequently as it used to and the once troublesome bulging email inbox of engagement is left neglected with a handful of spam messages
The old joke “Where is the best place to bury a body? On page 2 of Google” illustrates perfectly the reality of the available options at your disposal. With this in mind, maybe it’s time to stop being so stubborn with that resistance to change thing going on and accept the inevitable.
The one lesson to be learned from these latest changes to search engine algorithms is that you can no longer put a mobile strategy on the back burner. What was once considered an expensive luxury or pipe dream will soon be the difference between the future or the demise of your business.
Has your company website failed the test? What are your thoughts on the so-called impending Mobilegeddon? Do you have a mobile strategy in place?
Let me know your thoughts.
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