The Internet Marketer: Mobilegeddon 2017: What You Need to Know – Napa Valley Register
If youve been paying attention, you know about Mobilegeddon, Googles 2015 algorithm change that assigned preferential search results for mobile websites.
While Google rolls out an estimated 500 algorithm changes a year, this was one had important consequences for business owners and their (mobile) websites.
What this really meant was that Google assigned favored results for mobile sites, punishing those whose websites didnt translate to mobile devices.
How do you know if a site is mobile friendly?
If you have to scroll, click and fool around trying to read a site on your phone, its not mobile-friendly. That site is not meeting the design specs for responsive designadapting to all devicesdesktop, tablet and phone.
All of this is, of course, in response to the overwhelming growth of users who access everything from their phones, which is now more than 60 percent.
A scramble to become mobile-friendly
The result? A mad scrambling to convert sites to mobile.
In many cases, businesses are able to do some workarounds rather than having to create a whole new website, which is always a major undertaking.
Ive worked on quite a few WordPress conversion projects, successfully salvaging the old site to make it mobile-friendly, rather than starting from scratch and building a whole new website. Big savings in terms of time and money.
Look out for Mobilegeddon 2017: A mobile-first strategy
Google is rolling out a mobile-first index thats being called Mobilegeddon 2017.
As with Mobilegeddon 2015, site effectiveness and search results will be affected unless youre prepared.
Mobilegeddon 2017 is Googles new mobile-first index. Google is changing their index of web pages from desktop pages to mobile pages. No longer will a user be served up two different experiences.
Why does Mobilegeddon 2017 matter?
As with the algorithm change in 2015, If you dont optimize your website for mobile, your audience wont find you unless they stay on their mobile devices.
he organic traffic on your website will nosedive. Your site will not show up in search results as well as on those that are optimized for mobile.
Adapting to or preparing for Mobilegeddon 2017
Does your website meet Googles ever-changing algorithms? Copy and paste your url into Googles Mobile Testing Tool website for a quick analysis.
Youll get three ratings: one for overall mobile-friendliness, one for loading speed on mobile and one for desktop.
While the mobile-friendly ranking is most important, the loading-speed time is important as well. If your site takes too long to load, your audience will give up and go elsewhere.
Failed the mobile-friendly test? An opportunity
If you failed the test, its probably time for a new website that meets the global standards for responsive design. This may be the impetus to stop procrastinating and create a new website.
Styles have changedtheyre simpler and more streamlined. Chances are your content is no longer relevant and your images are outdated.
This is an opportunity to create an important new marketing tool for your business.
Janet Peischel is a writer, Internet marketing expert and the owner of Top of Mind Marketing. Contact Janet at 510-292-1843 or jpeischel@top-mindmarketing.com.
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The Internet Marketer: Mobilegeddon 2017: What You Need to Know - Napa Valley Register