Google’s Mobile-pocalypse-egeddon

Jerry L. Kennedy | TLT Social Media Marketing August 2015

How to make sure your Website doesn’t disappear.
 

When it comes to mobile design, start with the same question as your original Website: What do I want visitors to this site to do?
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IF YOU OWN OR MANAGE A WEBSITE, YOU’VE LIKELY BEEN BOMBARDED over the past several months with propaganda about the coming mobile apocalypse and why you should shell out big money to make sure your site is “responsive” and “mobile-friendly” before Google makes it disappear from the Internet. Before you get the checkbook out, though, there are a few things you should know about what Google has actually done and how relatively simple it is to make sure your site is ready for prime time.

First a little background. Back in February Google announced that it would be rolling out a change to its search algorithm for searches conducted on smartphones. In the new algorithm, sites that Google deemed mobile-friendly would rank higher but only on searches from small-screen devices; searches from desktops and tablets would be unaffected. Unlike previous updates Google announced this change months ahead of the planned implementation, creating a grace period of sorts for site owners to get their houses in order.

Google even provided a simple way to determine if your site was ready: the Mobile-Friendly Test, found at www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly. Just pop in your site’s URL and Google will tell you whether your site is mobile-friendly and, if not, what you can do to fix it. 

Of course, that didn’t prevent SEO marketers from trying to cash in on the change. From the moment of the announcement until the implementation date (April 21, 2015), the inboxes of site owners were flooded with dire warnings to “comply or disappear.” In reality, though, the headline should be “comply or…comply later, your call.” That’s right, this wasn’t a one and done change. Missing the deadline may have had a temporary negative impact on your site’s search ranking (again, for mobile phones only), but once you fix the issue you can resubmit the URL to Google and you’re right as rain again.

So about that fix. Again, if all you had to go on was the advice of SEO marketers, you’d think the only solution would be to make your site responsive. (A responsive site is one where the images and text resize and rearrange themselves based on the screen size of the device you’re using to view the site.) While responsive design is one way to answer the mobile dilemma, it’s certainly not the only (or even the best) way.

When it comes to mobile design, you have to start with the same question as your original Website, namely: What do I want visitors to this site to do? Do I want them to browse my catalog? Read a few of my articles? Place a phone call or get directions to my location? The answer to that question will determine whether a responsive design is right for you.

For example, if your desktop site is primarily content driven—with links to blog posts and articles populating the front page—and you want your mobile visitors to also primarily focus on your content, a responsive design might be exactly what you need. Your intent is the same, regardless of what kind of device your site is being viewed on. However, if you’d like to offer visitors using smartphones a quick and easy way to connect with your business by placing a phone call or getting directions to your location, a different solution might be in order. For example, you might create a landing page with those specific actions highlighted, or you could redirect visitors to a completely separate mobile version of your site.

As with all marketing decisions, your primary consideration should be your users: who they are, what they want and, perhaps most important, what you want them to do. Design your site’s mobile experience with the answers to those questions in mind, and Google Mobilegeddon will be a win for you and your prospects.


Jerry Kennedy earned his stripes as an operations and sales manager in the lubricants industry. He is currently the co-founder of CDK Creative, a digital marketing agency that brings his real-world sales and operations experience to the world of online marketing. Learn more or request a consultation at http://cdkcreative.com. Email him at jerry@jerrykennedy.com.