Google's Quest to Make the Web Mobile Friendly

By Haines|Published On: May 10, 2016|

Google continues to make changes that affect how mobile websites appear in the search results. Its latest change—dubbed Mobilegeddon 2.0—goes live this month. Here’s what that means for your small business website.

On April 21, 2015, Google made a change in their search algorithm that determined how it ranks websites in mobile search. On that day, Google started using “mobile-friendly” as a ranking signal.

Here’s what that means in plain English. When someone searches Google on a mobile phone, websites that are mobile-friendly may appear above those that aren’t.

April 21 was dubbed “Mobilegeddon” because dire consequences were predicted for sites that weren’t optimized for mobile. Yet, despite the hype, the effect on rankings was less dramatic than expected.

Natural Selection Rather than Extinction

Although it came and went with a whimper, the Mobilegeddon update was the beginning, not the ending. In March of this year, Google reaffirmed its ongoing mission to make the web more mobile-friendly:

Today we’re announcing that beginning in May, we’ll start rolling out an update to mobile search results that increases the effect of the ranking signal to help our users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly.

Rather than the mass extinction that was predicted, non-mobile websites—and possibly the businesses that own them—will suffer a slow death through natural selection, as they fail to adapt to the rapidly changing digital world.

Adapt or Die

Will your business really face extinction if your site isn’t mobile-friendly? Keep in mind that Google isn’t the only one penalizing you for your non-mobile website.

61% of smartphone users will abandon your non-mobile website for a competitor’s whose is

61% of smartphone users will abandon your non-mobile website for a competitor’s whose is
Google: What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today, 2012

All things being equal, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly and your competitor’s is, you lose.

Is My Site Mobile-Friendly?

Most business owners can’t answer that. But it’s really simple. You can test if your site is mobile-friendly here. If it fails, you’ll see this:

Free Guide

A mobile-friendly website is just one of several factors that affect how high you appear in the search engines. Download our free guide to learn about the rest.