Mobilegeddon A Bunch of "Overblown Nonsense"

As a general rule, people tend to get freaked out at new things. Case in point is the media fueled crisis that is Mobilegeddon, which was touted as the nail-in-the-coffin for any digital property not supporting modern web standards for mobile devices (e.g. Google's narrow interpretation standards for responsive design).

A similar Armageddon-like event occurred in one of my favorite movies, Shaun of the Dead, whose basic subtext was that we're all already brain dead, consumption-driven zombies and that becoming a zombie isn't really that much of a change.

In other words, Mobilegeddon isn't that much of a change.
Mobilegeddon Is Just SEO

The heart of search engine optimization is creating and manipulating content to increase position in a tool designed to serve relevant results based on a query.

Tailoring SERPs based on device-supporting features is only the natural extension of making that content accessible in the first place. Because struggling to view content not designed for mobile is kind of a pain; it's the antithesis of using a mobile device, which is built on the idea of specialized for-mobile experiences.

Why Are Non-Mobile Sites Concerned?

If you didn't have a mobile friendly site in 2015, you have much bigger digital platform issues than worrying about Google algorithm updates.

Any cursory look at visitor behavior or engagement metrics for mobile devices on a non-responsive website would, almost always, show traffic that en

gaged at lower rates than desktop and sometimes tablet.

If a site was devalued in SERPs due to lacking a mobile friendly status, it might lose traffic but it likely doesn't lose good traffic. There's exceptions to any rule, but these weren't conversions or highly engaging.

It Only Affects Mobile SERPs

Perhaps the most misunderstood aspect is that the change only affects mobile SERPs. Imagine that you can, on a mobile device, visit sites that provide you with the relevant information that you can easily read on your mobile device.

If you didn't have a mobile site, you weren't serving the needs of people on mobile devices. "Good" content is not just the substantive portion of information but how you make it accessible.
Also, Everyone's Utterly Unimpressed By It

The impact of Mobilegeddon, hence far, is minimal. The consensus is that SERP changes have been minimal. This will shake out into the future as more SERP adaptation takes places on a device-by-device basis.