Does Google Have Another Agenda For The Mobile Algorithm Update?

"Mobilegeddon" - the term used to describe the mobile apocalypse that's about to descend on websites globally courtesy of Google is slated to go-live on the 21st April 2015 (yesterday).

I have been exploring some thoughts around this mobile-friendly algorithm for a while now. . . I've thought about the "official" reasons given, but more importantly I've thought about the unofficial reasons.

I came across a LinkedIn Pulse article recently, which shed some light on some of the grey areas in my thought process. 

A few things clicked immediately. 

First and foremost, Google is a business. As much as they engage in a lot (probably more than most organisations) of CSR (corporate social responsibility), they are still a business. Everything they do must support the end goal -> revenue.

Google's biggest revenue stream come from ads. Google makes a lot of money from ads, It’s search pay per click product makes them billions in revenue.

Take a look at the graph below plotting Google's share price over the last few years (I'm not a "financial expert" but you'll note that it's been flat-ish over the last couple of years).

Source: AOL Money - Yahoo Finance

The graph below shows the increase in world-wide mobile phone subscriptions (there will be caveats for smartphones etc.) over a number of years:

Source: Worldbank.org

I’ve personally been informing my clients that the trends that show an increase in mobile usage and acquisition is a major part of why this Google mobile-friendly algorithm has come to fruition . . . 

. . . Something else I’ve noted (as Nicholas’s article pointed out about consumers happily looking at alternate ways to shop on mobile), is that Google needed a way to force its "clients" (those spending on PPC) to get their act together and sort out their websites, so that people don’t eventually just look for other ways to shop when using their mobile. There are lots of stats showing how bad user-experiences on websites affects consumer behaviour.

Google knows that its "clients" that spend on PPC also invest in SEO. 

And the cost of SEO in comparison to PPC can differ on a large scale (however; results take a little longer to achieve with SEO as opposed to PPC).

Put yourself in Google’s shoes. If every website listed in Google organic search (who also happen to pay for ads) were to be mobile-friendly, then consumers will make purchases via mobile through Google (consumer purchase on mobile in general is increasing YoY) and not elsewhere. Google does have competitors. . . 

Theoretically, what is the best way to force a ‘mobile’ way of thinking? Hit people where it’ll hurt – make a mobile specific algorithm that will devalue a website if it isn’t mobile-friendly.

Panic has ensued in so many ways, with brands accelerating their mobile roadmaps earlier than planned. Some are only just even starting to think about putting more importance on mobile due to ‘Mobilegeddon’.

Over the next coming weeks/months/year it'll be interesting to not just monitor the effect this algorithm has on websites, but also the effect it has on Google’s ad revenue. . . 

Please note this post is simply my observations from a digital search perspective. All opinions contrary to the above are welcome!