Bevil Wooding
Published:
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Google recently announced on its Webmaster Central Blog that starting April 21, Web sites offering a below-par mobile experience should expect a drop in search rankings. Google’s update to its search algorithm will affect mobile searches in all languages, in all countries.
The change by Google is designed to promote Web sites that are optimised for mobile. It will enhance the search experience for the growing army of mobile users, but it will also leave many businesses struggling to hold their place in Google’s search results, if their Web sites are not optimised for mobile devices.
1. Mobile tipping point
There are more than 1.5 billion mobile Internet users worldwide and roughly 80 per cent of them own a smartphone. 2015 is expected to be the year when mobile search reaches an important tipping point. An eMarketer report on Key Digital Trends for 2015, predicts that we are at the stage where the majority of spend, organic traffic and paid clicks from smartphones and tablets will surpass traditional desktop/laptop search activity.
If these stats we not sufficient motivation for you to mobile enable your company’s website, then Google’s recent announcement should provide the final push.
Google dominates the search engine market, holding an 88.2 per cent market share as of 2014. Google’s algorithm searches out Web pages that contain the keywords you used to search. It then assigns a rank to each page based several factors, including how many times the keywords appear on the page, and how optimised your site is for mobile devices.
Higher ranked pages appear further up on Google’s search engine results page (SERP). In other words, the best links relating to a search query are theoretically the first ones Google lists. A prominent listing on Google can result in a big boost in site visibility, visitor traffic and, consequently, revenues.
Businesses that haven’t yet put focused on addressing the growing mobile audience must now rethink their online strategy. Failure to do so will result in lower ranking of their websites in Google’s search engine results.
2. Ready or not…
In June 2013, Google wrote on its Webmaster Central Blog that it planned to roll out “several ranking changes in the near future” to “address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users.” Then, on February 26, 2015, the search-giant announced “important changes to help users discover more mobile-friendly content” on their mobile devices.
The first change, coming on April 21, will be to deliver “more mobile-friendly websites in search results” on mobile devices. With this update Google will expand its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. Google explained that its mobile-friendly algorithm will “have a significant impact in our search results,” giving mobile users easier access to “relevant, high-quality search results” optimised for mobile devices.
Given the significant emphasis Google is placing on mobile-friendliness, its new algorithm could also directly or indirectly impact desktop search result rankings. Google algorithm updates have a history of penalising sites unilaterally. So it is not unreasonable to conclude that if a site is penalised for not being mobile-friendly in mobile searches, it may also likely be penalised in desktop searches.
3. Mobile-friendly design options
Here are three options for mobile-enabling your corporate Web site:
i. Responsive design
Responsive web design is an approach that allows content to be streamlined for an optimal viewing experience across a range of devices including mobile phones and tablets to laptops and desktop PCs. Responsive Web site design is Google’s preferred optimisation method for mobile device displays since it automatically rearranges, hides or displays information across a variety of devices.
ii. Adaptive design
Another option is to create a website that serves different content and formatting through the same URLs to specific devices. For example, if your website detects that some one is accessing a page via a mobile device, it can serve a different set of content, formatted differently than would be offered if they accessed the page from a desktop computer. Note that this approach requires more developer effort and is more difficult to maintain.
iii. Separate mobile Web site
You can build a separate, mobile-specific website with a different URL, such as mycompany.mobi. Of course with this option you are booking double work, since you have to maintain both a mobile and a desktop Web site.
4. Easier search, happier users
Google says is not favoring any single approach to addressing mobile visitors as long as the experience is optimised for mobile devices. So whether you choose a responsive or adaptive design, or a separate mobile site, you must still follow Google’s requirements. These can be found at at http://ow.ly/LcUZM.
Remember, a well-optimised mobile website makes it easier for your online visitors to find the information and services they seek via their mobile devices. The easier it is, the happier they are. Then it will be up to you, not Google, to turn happy visitors into satisfied customers.
Steps to stay mobile-friendly
Searchenginewatch.com suggests the following steps to help web designers gain a better understanding of how to cater to their mobile audience and optimise sites to attract them.
1. Audit your site for mobile friendliness ASAP
2. Analyse your mobile share of voice, look at competitive sites and where you stack up and rank, mobile optimisation from April 21 is a new competitive sub market
3. Optimise and follow Google best practice; it is fair to say “you have been warned” by Google
4. Track keyword trends and mobile rankings across device type such as desktop, mobile, and tablet
5. Measure mobile rank and results at a page level
6. Report keyword trends and rankings across device type for local and global results
7. Refine and fine tune the six elements above with regard to your mobile strategies, approach, and tactics
Google also offers two useful tools that allow you to test Web sites to see how well they perform on mobile devices. The first is the Mobile Usability Report, part of Google Webmaster Tools. The second is a mobile-friendly test that can be run on a specific page URL.
Bevil Wooding is chief knowledge office at Congress WBN (C-WBN) an international non-profit organisation and executive director at BrightPath Foundation, responsible for C-WBN’s technology education and outreach initiatives. Follow on Twitter: @bevilwooding
Business Guardian