Several clients contacted me to ask about alarming Mobilegeddon emails from other web companies. The emails I saw from 3 separate companies claimed any website that wasn’t optimized for mobile by April 21 would see their traffic disappear and their business drop. My clients were asking how to respond to such dire predictions.
Google did set a deadline of April 21
Google did say it would be a significant correction. They did publicize the changes they wanted webmasters to make.
SEO and other web people named it Mobilegeddon
They then used the situation to scare clients into building new sites. Reminds me of the Y2K deadline in 2000 when it was predicted that there’d be major computer failures around the world as computers hadn’t been coded to recognize the year 2000.
I really hate hype
It represents some of the worst kind of marketing. You want people to trust your expertise and hype comes across as manipulative and dishonest. As professionals we shouldn’t stoop to this.
The fall out was pretty minor
Web professionals and writers from many respected sources like Moz and Search Engine Land now see that while a few sites did lose mobile traffic, the change was pretty minor. I’ve provided several links at the end of this article if you want to see for yourself.
So what now?
So just because there wasn’t an immediate, large visible effect doesn’t mean we can all go take a nap.
Google has made it clear that mobile readiness is part of their algorithm…they expect and want us all to optimize our sites for mobile phones. Really who can argue with that.
Mobile phone searches now exceed desktop searches
Google wants to deliver a positive experience for all users, and they are telling us there are now more mobile searches then desktop searches. Even if we can’t see the data ourselves, we can see people on their phones everywhere we go…probably in your own home or office! It’s obvious people are searching on mobile a lot!
It’s in our own business interests to go mobile
Creating a mobile friendly experience for our customers and prospects is in our own interests.
So breathe a sigh of relief
Fortunately, April 21st wasn’t the hard deadline some thought. Consider yourself lucky and then make a plan to make your site mobile friendly in the next 6 -12 months.
Mobilegeddon Blog Posts:
The Fallout From MobileGeddon: What’s the Impact on Your Business? by Brain Hughes, Small Business Trends
A Look at the Immediate Effects of Mobilegeddon by Samual Edwards, Inc.com
Google’s Mobile Friendly Algorithm A Week Later: Was It Really Mobilegeddon? by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land
Mobilegeddon Is Beginning, Not Ending by Bryson Meunier, Search Engine Land
Karen Nierlich is co-owner and internet marketing consultant at Full Orbit. Call her at 510-527-9920 if you have questions about mobile and what one does to make a site mobile-friendly. She and her team work with small and medium size businesses on their websites and marketing. All sites built by the company use a mobile responsive WordPress theme.