Released By: The Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce.
Bill Ackerman of Green Mountain Marketing and Advertising explains the details of “Mobilegeddon” to the crowd attending the Chamber’s Mixer hosted by the award winning Red Clover Inn Restaurant & Tavern.
If your website is not mobile friendly, Google is about to drop you like a hot potato.
In its quest to provide the best experience for its users, Google is about to launch the most significant consumer-facing algorithm update in its history. Dubbed Mobilegeddon by many in the marketing industry, the update will place higher value on mobile-friendly and responsive websites for searches conducted on mobile devices. Consequently, sites that have been built with a responsive design or have not been optimized for mobile will see their placement in search results drop below sites that Google views as easy to read and navigate on mobile phones. It may be difficult to regain your page one placement once Google penalizes you, so we are recommending that all businesses with websites modernize and get their sites optimized for mobile. All businesses want visitors to see their site properly and have a good experience. After all, for many visitors, this is their first impression of your business, so you should care, even if it is Google that is basically forcing you into action.
This update comes on the heels of mobile searches reaching the tipping point and exceeding desktop searches for the first time, a clear indication of the shift in popularity and functionality of mobile devices.
How do you know if your site is mobile-friendly? Google has made it easy to figure it out. The easiest way is to Google your URL – from a mobile device – and look at the result. If you see “Mobile-Friendly” in grey lettering below your URL, congratulations, Google is happy to deliver your results in mobile searches. If you don’t see those words, try this simple test that takes about one minute. This one can be done on either your desktop computer or mobile device. Go to Google.com and type MOBILE FRIENDLY TEST in the search box. On the next screen, just follow the instructions and enter your URL in the box provided, and then give it a minute to analyze your site. You will know immediately how Google views your page and whether it gives its seal of approval or not. If it fails the test, you will see the reasons and you’ll know what areas need work to get up to Google’s standards.
Experts recommend you take a look at your site’s analytics to determine how much traffic comes from mobile devices. If you’re like most businesses, you’ll see that a significant amount of volume comes from these little computers, which means it is time to update and become mobile-friendly. Mobile searches will only grow from here, so procrastination will now hurt the traffic you’ve been enjoying. But get on it soon. Mobilegeddon happens April 21, 2015!
Bill Ackerman is the Chief Marketing Officer at Green Mountain Marketing & Advertising in Killington and serves on the Board of Directors of the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce.
Green Mountain Marketing & Advertising, Inc.
218 Lakewood Dr.
Killington, VT 05751
802.282.2648
GreenMountainMarketingAndAdvertising.com
