Mobile Archives - SEO Services for Cheltenham & Bristol Areas

Mobilegeddon is here! Save the World!

Mobliegeddon, it’s a great word isn’t it?
It sounds like the world is going to end for mobiles or something, very dramatic!

However this is not going to happen so you can relax in the knowledge you will still be able to play Candy Crush on your tablet.
In fact ‘Mobilegeddon’ has been used to name the launch of a new algorithm from Google which ranks websites which are designed for mobile devices better than websites which are not. This will only affect searches using Google’s mobile search facility (ie: using Google from a mobile device).
The new algorithm was launched on 21st April 2015 and Google have said it will take a week to completely roll it out.

This isn’t something they have sprung on us, they gave us a ‘heads up’ on this a couple of months ago.

If you would like to know more about this algorithm update from Google read our blog post on Googles Mobile Algorithm or What is a Mobile Website?

I’m writing this post on the 26th April so 5 days into the roll out. Juicy SEO test new algorithm updates all year round and this one is no exception. To test this new update we have deliberately left sites out there which are absolutely shocking to use on a mobile device purely to watch the results of this change. We are also monitoring many other websites which are not mobile friendly to gather as much information as possible.

Mobilegeddon

So far after monitoring 1000s of keywords every day for many websites we have yet to see any real ranking differences between the standard search results and the mobile results. There have only been a few keywords with a very minimal difference (1 position difference for 4 keywords) which we do not think is related to this update.

This isn’t to say all these ranking positions won’t all change tomorrow as there are still few days left to go. Additionally we are monitoring UK based websites and the change just might not have filtered over the pond just yet. Google are rolling out the update Data-centre by Data-centre and it will take a week to do.
Additionally from what we have read from other SEOs based in the states it doesn’t sound like much has happened over there either.

Is there really an update coming?

Now the sceptic in me is thinking that if I ran a search engine and wanted to produce good search results for mobile devices, saying to all webmasters if you don’t make your website mobile friendly it will not rank well is a pretty good way to do it. After all users of Google whilst on mobile devices want search results which work well on their device, if the user is happy they will keep using Google.

In a recent survey it was reported that it is now a near 50/50 split of people using the internet on a mobile device compared with a desktop computer. This is clearly going to sway towards the mobile device very soon and Google know this, so providing a good search results for mobile devices will be very important for them. Other search engines are slowly catching Google up in terms of monthly users so they can’t sit on their laurels.

So all this end of the world style Mobilegeddon might just be a way to help Google get what they want?

This wouldn’t be the first time Google have done something like this, it wasn’t that long ago Google said that if you move your website to a secure server (SSL cert, using HTTPS) the website will receive a boost in their search results, even if only a little. From our test results it was a VERY little boost indeed!
However it did push some reluctant webmasters to secure their website, and we all want a secure internet so it wasn’t a bad result really was it?

Even if nothing comes of this it is still a win for website owners who have made their website mobile friendly as your visitors will appreciate it!

As said above we still have a few days to go and the ‘Mobile Friendly’ tag is being seen in mobile search results so who knows!

If you agree, disagree we would love to hear from you on our Facebook page or on Twitter.

What is a Mobile Website?

Recently there has been a lot of talk about mobile websites, Google have announced that they are making a change to their algorithm for mobile search results that will affect all non-mobile websites.

But what is considered a mobile website and what do I need to do so my website is not affected by this algorithm?

There are essentially 4 types of websites relating to mobile devices:

The old style website which doesn’t care about mobile devices, it doesn’t fit on ‎smaller screens and you have to pinch and zoom out to see the pages. The text is very small and the buttons are just a small.
Next are sites that have had some coding put in place so the website fits on your mobile phone or tablet. You still need to pinch for somethings and the buttons are often too small for fat fingers. They look like the desktop version but on a smaller screen. This is often seen as a suitable fix for a mobile responsive website.

The next one is a mobile designed website, when your website is viewed on a phone the buttons are thumb sized, the menu options are easy to navigate on a small screen (often using the hamburger icon) and images are smaller so it is quicker to load the page. Remember Google likes fast loading pages and it is now thought to be part of their main search algorithm.
Finally the website that has be tailored for their mobile visitors. Identifying the details they are looking for and having these details near the top of the page. If having your website shared on social media is important then make sure you have the ‘share this page’ buttons easy to get to. If you are a shop or restaurant for example, somewhere people can actually visit then your location, address, click-able phone number, map and maybe Sat Nav functions might be important. Real thought on what mobile users need from your website.

Ok so now you know what needs to be done, who should you call? One word….

Ghostbusters!

…sorry couldn’t resist.

The obvious person is your website developer (or company), anyone who makes websites worth their salt will know what to do. Ask them for examples of their work to make sure and test on your own mobile device (or several if you have). If they haven’t got one to show then it’s time to find someone new as they are very behind the times!

…the biggest search engine ranking shake-up for several years…

The next question you might ask yourself is…

Is my current website already mobile friendly?

There are many tools and simulators out there which test websites for this however there is really only one you need to satisfy, and that is Google’s!

This is a link to their test, enter in your website to find out.

Google Mobile Website Test Page

If this tools says your site is not mobile ready then you need to makes some changes.

On 21st April 2015 Google will be rolling out an algorithm update which will take about a week to complete, it will affect websites that are not designed for mobile devices.

It is looking like it could be the biggest search engine ranking shake-up for several years, so expect your traffic figures to change either up or down. Of course if your website is already ready for this update your competitors might not be, you could do one of two things here:

Let your competitors know they are just about to lose a lot visitors to their website and they should make their website mobile ready.
Or you could just let them figure it out for themselves and you can have all their customers. It would teach them for not following Juicy SEO would it!

The algorithm update will N‎OT affect your website in normal desktop search results, however it is now nearly 50/50 users of the internet use mobile devices to surf, wouldn’t you be silly to ignore?!
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Want to know what else is happening in the world of SEO? Head over to our latest Monthly Search Engine Optimisation 2min update!