Google's Mobilegeddon Panic?

(Insert Chicken Little) The Sky is falling! The Sky is Falling! Run for the hills!

Google only has to "pre-announce a big algorithmic change is coming," and every business owner with an organic page one ranking freaks out and reaches for the Prozac or smokes a bowl of Maui Wowie (if you live in Colorado).

DO NOT PANIC. I REPEAT: DO NOT PANIC.   

Google's Mobile Update aka: MOBILEGEDDON is said to be necessary for "usability," purpose for users on mobile devices.  

If your site ranked page one, #2 last week -- RELAX. Your site probably still ranks in the same position today. Google's Mobilegeddon algorithm change was just for your mobile site, or lack thereof. 

Google's decision to do yet another "algorithmic change," this time isn't based out of pure greed to get millions of you to pay for AdWords.

This time, it's about making Google's search more useful by pulling up websites that ARE mobile friendly as opposed to a mix bag of users clicking on sites that are mobile friendly as opposed to ones that you have to pinch-pinch-pinch just to make the site usable on your 5-inch smartphone's screen.

I've been developing UX and UI experiences a long, long time.  Pretty things get attention. Clean websites hold user's attention longer. Crappy and busy websites lose people's attention in less than ten seconds. Crappy websites don't generate a lot of sales, either.  Once you learn this, you start to make better decisions as what to design and how to deliver the information to people visiting your website in a  fun and useful way that generates leads and sales. 

If you like the sound of the machine that goes "ka-ching" as much as I do, and if your website sort of sucks when it comes to generating more sales than your competition -- then your website can benefit from a UI bulldozer.  

You can have a great website for Mac, PCs and laptops. You can have lots of good sales, too.  But how usable is it on your iPhone?

Pinching a website to zoom in so they read your website text is a big, huge "no-no."  

If your website does not redirect to a mobile version of your site, if your website isn't responsive and changes shape and re-arranges content to fit a 5-inch iPhone, or a 7-inch Samsung Galaxy... then you're simply missing out on tons more potential clicks, leads and sales your could be generating for whatever it is you do, make or sell.

Still Pinching Your Website on a Smartphone? 

If you have to "pinch-pinch," your company website on a mobile device just to read the text -- and for some unearthly reason you still rank organically on a Google mobile search as page one #3 position -- then please consider Mobilegeddon as your final wakeup call. 

If your website isn't MOBILE ready, don't feel like you're missing the boat. Because more than 40% of the Fortune 500 doesn't have a Mobile-friendly website, either.  

This is by no means a death sentence for your online presence.  Just get up. Dust yourself off and get the mobile site done. Here's a good primer on how you should start the planning for going mobile with your company website: 

Bartman's Top 5 things to do for a killer mobile experience:

1. Minimal is good. KISS: Keep it Simple Stupid.
2. Don't force readers to read fifteen pages of what you do. Give them a video to watch that is 90 seconds or less and has a call to action. 
3. Click-able phone number? Do you like hunting for a phone number to click with your iPhone when you visit a website? I hate it , too. Make it simple for people to click your phone and connect instantly. 
4. Photos and videos load okay? Or are they partially off the left or right side of the screen? Bad dog! Fix it. Fix it.
5. Long forms to fill out? Argh. No. Remember -- they are on a puny 5-inch screen. You ask them for their name, their spouse, what they like for lunch, and their first male born child and it's over for you. Visitors will scramble for the browsers BACK button. Ask for the minimal stuff on mobile forms. Name, email, phone and a short message box. Period. No more. 

If you're kind of wondering if your website passes the "Mobile Friendly Test," Google has a free tool you can use.

Just enter your WWW address in the box and click the button. In a few minutes, it will crawl your site and test it for it being "Mobile Ready."

Click here and use this Google tool for free.

NOW: Test your Organic Ranking on your Mac or PC

If you ranked page one # 2 on a Google desktop search last week, chances are good you still rank the same today.

I ran a test for our site and entered in the KW's:  virtual tour cameras.  Woo-hoo! We still rank page one, #2 organically on page one today.

Now let's go and see if we have a Google search results on my iPhone 5s with the same page rank.

As fate would have it, we're okay. 

We still rank page one #2. But note the difference now on each organic listing.

The Google Mobilegeddon effect is showing up now. Google has the stamp: Mobile-Friendly next to our organic slot. So apparently, it means we've survived yet another Google Tsunami wave.

Now I can get finally get some sleep.