4 STEPS TO AVOID GOOGLE MOBILE SEARCH “MOBILEGEDDON”

(Note: visit the Stephdokin Blog for the full post or click here).

Google’s new Mobile focused Algorithm was released on April 21st 2015. Oh Sh#*! The date has already come and gone, is it too late for you? The term “Mobilegeddon” has been coined by the industry and it’s intended meaning is that if your website is not 100% mobile-friendly, the Google search engine ranking for your website will get worse.

Not to worry, the term Mobilegeddon may be overstating the issue. Yes, it will impact non-mobile-friendly sites, but there’s plenty you can do fairly quickly. And, keep in mind that this change only affects searches done via smartphone.

We have outlined the action steps you need to take to stay on top of your mobile optimizations. You can find out more about the rollout straight from the mouth of Google: https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2015/04/rolling-out-mobile-friendly-update.html

You will also want to take a look at our previous post that goes over the basics and the most important resource links such as the Mobile Friendly Test (see if google views you as Mobile Friendly or not).

So what do we know so far? The new Google Algorithm will reward websites that are mobile optimized or “mobile friendly”. Google decides the mobile usability factor based on a yes or no answer, this means you will either receive a check mark or not. Therefore it is important that you optimize your site for mobile as soon as you can. It is yet unknown if sites who are not mobile optimized will be penalized or just not given the “check mark” bonus. In all likelihood mobile friendly sites will be boosted and receive no penalty otherwise. The change will affect over 40% of fortune 500 companies, and likely a large percentage of remaining web pages.

A little overwhelmed? Take a relaxing deep breath and read on, we have done all the work for you. Included is the information and resources that will help you navigate the new wrench Google has thrown at us. But look at it as a wrench of opportunity! You are now able to take a proactive step and prove your website is a cut above the rest.

1. Test Your Current Situation

First we need to get an idea of where you stand in the eyes of Google. We will want to gather as much information as possible so we can make an informed decision on how to tackle this problem…I mean opportunity 

You may be saying to yourself “but my site has hundreds of pages and I already spent so much time building it! There is no way I can easily optimize for mobile.” This quote from Google will give you some solace:

“While the mobile-friendly change is important, we still use a variety of signals to rank search results. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal — so even if a page with high quality content is not mobile-friendly, it could still rank high if it has great content for the query.”

So you may still rank very well if you have great content, but other sites who have been optimized will start to surpass you. Therefore, you should make a long term plan to convert on mobile as soon as you can. It’s not going to happen all in one day and if you don’t know where to start we can always point you in the right direction. Again, realize that desktop searches will not be affected, only those on mobile.

 The algorithm applies to individual pages and not entire websites, this presents a slight problem with Google’s mobile friendly test page. It lets you know if Google sees your HOME PAGE as friendly to mobile users, not the entire site. You can either test each page individually using the tool OR if you would like to save time use this handy trick…

Search “site:mysiteexample.com” on your mobile phone and in the chrome web browser (include your own site url of course). This will indicate for each page of your site a “mobile-friendly” tag:

Easily check each page of your website on chrome.

 This is especially helpful if you have hundreds of pages, record the ones that don’t show up as mobile-friendly and click to the next page! Much more efficient. Now you know which pages you need to spend the bulk of your time.

Second, you will want to check your Webmaster Tools which will indicate any usability errors. Once logged into Webmasters go to Search Traffic and click on the “Mobile Usability” section (or click here). This information will be useful and lets you know if your font size is too small, your content is not sized properly or your viewport is not configured correctly. Clickable links may also be too close together and hard to tap for mobile users (Google refers to this as your “Touch Elements”). Click the error for more information and to find out which URL the error is associated with.

 Stephdokin can provide a more detailed site analysis that will give some insights into your desktop version as well as your mobile usabilty and how you can fix it. We will send you this report free of charge as we want you to succeed in the mobile friendly journey Google has put before us. Pagespeeds does give some insights but it is limited in its usefulness.

The report will point you in the right direction and provide valuable insights. https://seoreport.stephdokin.com

2. Must know Resources

There are a TON of resources to help you get your site mobile ready and friendly. Google nicely outlines the principles of mobile site design in a 25 point study where they focused on 5 categories including: Site Navigation, Site Search, Form Entry, Commerce/Conversions, and the Usability Factor. This resource is highly recommended, some of my favourites include the following:

Navigation: Don’t let promotions steal the show

Site Search: Implement Filters to Narrow Results

Conversion: Link Telephone Numbers for Click to Call

Use this resource to your advantage, Google has created a handbook so we know what is to be done. Make sure to utilize it! 

...To be continued...

For the full blog post and all 4 points visit the Stephdokin Blog or click here to go directly to this post. Have an amazing day you wonderful person ;)