Mobilegeddon :: was it the apocalypse or just the first salvo?
On 21 April this year, after much groundwork laid, Google released a new algorithm update to recognise mobile friendliness as a factor in mobile searches. We here at MWS wrote about it a number of times (links below) and encouraged our clients to consider the potential of this update on them.
In the period since I’ve heard mutterings asking the question was this hype or the real deal? Two of those articles are
Mobilegeddon A Month Later: Small Business Study Shows…. Nothing Happened
How you were fooled by Google #Mobilegeddon update
Did Godzilla, sorry the other big G, Google just not show up or was the promised havoc not as visible as we expected?
There's almost no way to truly answer this question. Search results are so heavily personalised it is very hard to identify the specifics of any one change in the algorithm. Some possible reasons for this lack of havoc result described in the articles reference above might be:
Sample sizes were too small to generate meaningful results
Traffic levels were influenced by factors other than mobile friendliness, which skewed the results
Demographics of sample set were not heavy mobile users
The perception the change was focussed on rank improvement rather than rank protection
The catchy titles referencing “SEO-Pocalypse” and “Mobilegeddon” were great marketing but not a true reflection of the intent
Despite the differences between expectation and measurements seen so far, I don't think it changes Google’s intent to “encourage” mobile friendly websites. Their focus has always been on serving the needs of their users, who are largely people using the search engines to connect with businesses like yours. One way or another, those who best serve Google’s customers are likely to gain more traffic from this source.
Related articles:
Is this the dawn of the Mobile SEO-Pocalypse? (blog.midboh.com.au)
Mobile friendly trumps content? I think not. (blog.midboh.com.au)
Author: Chris Faber
Photo Credit: odeean via Compfight cc