The mobilegeddon aftermath
Since Google announced the new mobile ranking algorithm, the media have been predicting the end of high rankings for non-mobile friendly websites calling 'mobilegeddon' on mass too all.Google have released the new algorithm now. so is it as bad as expected?
Do you still have to convert your web pages?
What exactly is Google's new algorithm?
On 21 April, Google released a ranking algorithm that changes the way web pages are ranked in Google's mobile results. According to Google, web pages that do not display correctly on mobile phones, will get lower rankings than before:
According to Google, there's less that 5% more mobile-friendly websites from two months ago, when Google announced the new algorithm. The update doesn’t apply to all devices or results though:
• it affects only mobile device search rankings
• it applies to individual pages of a site, not all of the website
• it is a global algorithm update that affects search results in all languages
Many webmasters changed their websites - was it worth it?
Well we predicted this change would and was happening before Christmas, we noticed back then that changes were happening to mobile search and we advised all our clients to "get mobile friendly" in December.
The mobile results haven't changed dramatically for many websites, the effect seems to be small. Some websites saw dropped rankings for some of their main keywords but not for all.
Google did say that secure websites would get an advantage, a lot of webmasters added SSL certificates in a rush and encountered many problems that were hard to fix (broken security certificates, broken plugins, less relevant AdSense ads, etc.). So far, HTTPS sites do not seem to rank better but we will be keeping an eye on things and information will be posted we found.
The new mobile algorithm could be similar. A new mobile website can also cause problems:
• for many websites, mobile traffic is worth less than desktop traffic
• if you change an effective web page with high conversions and replace it with an untested mobile design, conversions might drop
• Contact a reputable company that are specialists in mobile websites.
Anthony Johnson
@anthonyjohns0n
www.digital4trade.co.uk