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Google Algorithm Mobile Changes: Here's What You Need to Know

Starting on Tuesday April 21, 2015, Google will be implementing a considerable

adjustment to the way it ranks websites.

This change is greater than any other Google has undertaken in terms of the degree of

impact on search results. The change comes down to one very important criteria:

Are your website, landing pages, and blog fully optimised for

mobile and tablet devices?

Google announced the change on its Webmaster Central Blog in February 2014 and has

undertaken a methodical approach ever since then, preparing marketers and website

owners to predict how the change may affect their site and search traffic.

Their official statement:

"Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a

ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages

worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.

Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search

results that are optimized for their devices."

Let’s be very clear: If your site isn't 100% optimised for mobile devices, you will see a hit

to your ranking on mobile searches and the impact of this for you will be lost traffic.

The Interweb, being creative, are calling this change "Mobilegeddon."

As a business you might be asking - What do I do next?

1. Test Your Website

Google has provided a free tool for website owners and administrators to tell them

exactly what is needed to respond to the new mobile search algorithm. This test will

analyse a URL and report if the page has a mobile-friendly design.

Access Google Mobile Design test -

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

When you run your site on the tool, you'll get an assessment of whether your mobile

rank will suffer as a result of the April 21st change. If your website is fully optimised for

mobile, you'll get a success message like this one:

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You will get a visual of how the Googlebot "sees" your website. If your website, landing

pages or blog are not ready for the mobile update, you'll get a message that looks like

this:

Along with the failure message, you'll get a few pointed bullets on the reasons

your digital presence failed the test. In the example above, you can see the mobile

viewport is not set, the links are too close together, and the text is too small to easily

read on a mobile device.

While this may seem like you'll need to do a complete redesign or build to fix each error,

moving to a mobile optimised content management system, blog, or landing page tool

will likely fix most of them.

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+61 3 9696 7473 www.theonlinecircle.com in partnership with Hubspot

2 - Choose Your Mobile Optimisation Approach

If your website or landing page isn't optimised for mobile, it's vital you make some

changes in light of the new Google algorithm. Even the best landing page and websites

in the world will see drastically diminishing returns after April 21 if they’re not optimised

for mobile.

To remedy the situation you have options. Google recognises three different

configurations as "mobile friendly." You can move your content to any of the following

set-ups and be protected from the change.

2.1) Responsive Design - Google’s #1 recommended execution. The reason

responsive design is so advantageous is that it doesn't create two copies of the

same site. Prospects, consumers, and visitors only have one URL to go to and the

website will adjust as they move from phone to tablet to desktop and beyond.

Responsive Design is Online Circle Digital's preferred option. Many the times we can

"retrofit" Responsive Design, adapting your current website into a Responsive version.

2.2) Dynamic Serving. Like responsive design, a dynamic serving approach keeps

the same URL -- but this time, the HTML actually changes. Dynamic serving

uses user-agents to "sniff" out what kind of device the viewer is using and then

dynamically serves up the appropriate view.

Google notes that this user-agent detection can be an error-prone technique, but it is an

option that passes the Google mobile-optimisation test.

2.3) Mobile Website. Creating a separate mobile website. This was one of the

early solutions for mobile optimisation, and it still meetsGoogle's

requirements. This is how it works:when a new user arrives at a website,

this configuration tries to detect the users’ device, then redirects to the

appropriate website (a totally separate url) using a redirection. This method isn't

recommended compared to responsive design is it requires website owners to

maintain -- and Google to crawl -- two versions. In addition, it can be a bad

experience for a users, prospect or customer who accidentally clicks on the

mobile link, possibly shared through social or email, while on a desktop

computer.

3 - Why is Responsive Design the Best Choice?

Website visitors like it.

From a visitor's standpoint the Experience with your website is smooth. This design

uses the same URL (address) and the same content. It just adapts and gets re-

proportioned based on the viewer. That means if one of your visitors emails a link from

their phone and then their friends open it on their desktop they will each have a good

personal experience.

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Google likes it.

From Google's standpoint it saves resources when Googlebot crawls websites. Rather

than crawling multiple sites, the Googlebot can go to one place which increases

efficiency and helps Google index more content. It also helps Google's algorithms more

accurately assign indexing properties to a piece of content without needing to check

two places.

Marketers and website owners like it. A responsive site requires less time and budget

to maintain.

Fast

With less redirections the website is faster = more conversions.

When Online Circle Digital develops solutions we consider UX (User Experience), Design

and suitable technology.

For example, for our clients that are seeking Lead Generation from their websites as a

business outcome we apply HubSpot Marketing Automation that uses native responsive

design.

4- I'm not ready for a redesign. Do I have to do this now?

You may not need to fully redesign and change the whole content now to comply with

Google's requirements for mobile-friendly sites.

However you do need to do is to move your existing site, blog or landing pages to a

mobile friendly platform or template or retrofit your site.

If you do nothing it will impact your business.

Estimates of mobile search volume vary by industry, but one thing researchers have

seen is that companies with mobile-optimized sites triple their chances of increasing

mobile conversation rate to 5% or above.

So, every day you take no action will be a day with less traffic to your site and less leads,

sales, or impressions from your site.

5- Is my site permanently penalised if I don't optimise for mobile now?

No -- you can rebuild search credit after the fact. It will be harder and more expensive,

but possible. In other words, any delay will impact the final investment needed to get

your site to a good position for mobile search.

Final Thoughts

Despite the tendency to turn any Google Algorithm change into an impending zombie

apocalypse, this change is actually a very good one for Google users and marketers

alike. Modernising your website to be optimised for all the ways people shop and buy

better meets the needs of prospective customers, reduces friction on your website, and

will ultimately lead to more conversions and revenue for your company. There's a lot to

like about that.