Google has been coming up with one or the other updates to make the SEO world better. Adding to the long list of various updates, early this year on April 21st, it released a new addition to its new search engine algorithm – Mobilegeddon, which was aimed at improving the mobile web experience. The update was intended to change the way Google evaluated and organized both mobile-friendly and non-mobile-friendly websites.
The major focus of the website was to bring the websites; top in search results those are mobile friendly and vice-versa.
Initially, the torrent of speculations was very overwhelming. Many search engine marketers had a firm belief that Mobilegeddon would change everything about the way searches were being used and how SEO was significant in lead acquisition for marketers. However, the outcomes were slightly disappointing. Unexpectedly, just after a few days of the sudden rollout, several major sites were penalized; however, they weren’t completely blown off from the Earth. Google’s announcement that it made two months prior to the release came true!
MOBILEGEDDON-The Impact
I also published a post on MOBILEGEDDON Update that has a short insight of the changes it would bring to the world of digital marketing.
As per the report from Adobe Systems ADBE +0.58%, it was found that traffic on the non-mobile responsive sites fell 12% in just two months after the algorithm took effect, as compared to the mobile-friendly sites. Adobe tracked the traffic on more than 5,000 websites, which it divided into mobile-friendly and non-mobile-friendly. Before the launch, Google had already presaged the marketers that it’d favor only those sites that looked good on small screens, used separated links that can be easily tapped and had bigger text. The changes to the new algorithm prompted many web operators to modify their sites so that the sites remained visible in Google search results.
A very few took the warning seriously!
The biggest impact was seen in the week of the Memorial Day in May when people conducted searches on their phones, instead of their personal computers.
“Mobilegeddon fears have come true,” said Tamara Gaffney, an Adobe analyst. “Website operators who lost traffic paid the search giant to keep phone users visiting their sites”, he further added.
In general, the most remarkable effects in Google’s mobile search results were noticed among the large websites generating lots of content including entertainment, news and government among others. SEO experts, website designers and developers with responsive websites benefited the most from the update. Wikipedia’s content-rich and responsive website saw one of the biggest lifts in its organic rankings. In contradiction, Reddit – a popular news sharing website was one of the larger websites that lost its mobile visibility as it failed to meet Google’s mobile-friendly requirements.
MOBILEGEDDON – Lessons to Learn
The Mobilegeddon update and this experience have left for us three important lessons to learn:
1. Search Algorithm Updates Are Often Exaggerated
This can be extremely painful for people who refer any article forecasting the worst about any update. A few extreme opinions mounted into a massive movement, which unfortunately ended up creating an apocalyptic term for a relatively innocent update. Even back in February, the effects of this update were quite straightforward. There was never any reason to fear especially for those whose sites were already mobile optimized.
2. Google Desires the Best for Us
Google isn’t your enemy; it just wants that its users get the best possible experience irrespective of what device or browser they use to reach our website. Hence, giving our customers the greatest experience possible is what all can we do. This is why Google presaged us exactly what it was planning two months the actual release. The truth is, the search engine informed us everything up front and provided us with all the resources that were needed to prepare for this update. Those who missed the boat and saw their decline, that’s entirely on them and not GOOGLE.
3. Mobile Is Extremely Vital
The concern of Google that led the launch of this update and the advance warning for webmasters proves that mobile optimization is extremely important to Google. Moreover, to further increase its importance, Google has already started indexing mobile apps much in the same way that it indexes the prevailing websites as mobile application will rule the marketing strategy of any business in future. Mobile apps have already become the necessity of every business. How? You can read here. So, in the near future, there would be no surprise to see a handful of major updates to come up that improve online experience for mobile users.