If you missed the boat on the new mobile algorithm update from Google, the ship has not sailed. Here is how you can rebuild search credit after the fact.
The online marketing industry has been abuzz for the last few months with the news of the Google mobile algorithm update on April 21, 2015, dubbed across the web as “Mobilegeddon.”
In fact, you can be sure that those working in the industry have been laboring up to this point like tax accountants before the April 15th income tax deadline.
The good news is, unlike a failure to file your income taxes, you are not going to be penalized for a failure to update your site according to Google’s mobile-friendly criteria.
You should, however, be dedicating serious resources to upgrading your website, landing pages, and blogs for the new, mobile-friendly search environment if you want to continue receiving search traffic from mobile users.
To help you get started, here are some steps you can take to recover your position in Google’s updated mobile search results:
- Test your website: Google provides a free tool that will evaluate your site for mobile-friendliness. All you have to do is enter your URL, and the tool will tell you whether or not your site passes the test.
- Upgrade to responsive design: If the tool tells you that your site is not mobile-friendly, then you may need to incorporate responsive website design into your marketing plan. This does not necessarily mean that you will need an entire redesign, but you should consider speaking with a reputable web design firm to ensure that your migration is in line with the expectations of Google and your site visitors (both mobile and desktop).
- Check site security: In 2014, Google announced that they were including HTTPS as a ranking factor in search results. This is still important with the new mobile algorithm, so if you have not upgraded your site security then now is the time.
- Verify site/page load time: Quick site or page load time has been an important ranking factor for search results for a while now, and this will continue with Google’s mobile search algorithm update. Check your Google Analytics account for load times, or speak with your webmaster who can help you view them.
Mobile-Friendly: Now or Later?
Google will not penalize sites for failing to comply with mobile-friendly criteria. However, the longer your website, landing pages and blogs are not optimized for mobile devices, the more your mobile search traffic will drop.
Considering that mobile search has now surpassed desktop search, we think that failing to upgrade for the new mobile search algorithm is quite devastating.
Take the time right now to evaluate your current website with the Google tool, speak with your webmaster about what it will take to upgrade, and check into your site security and load times.
The Google mobile algorithm update is not just a self-serving activity; it is helping to deliver content that users want and need, and in turn helping businesses reach their consumers where they are spending more of their time.
