Post-Mobilgeddon – Did you survive?

“Mobilegeddon”, the mobile apocalypse, or so it was explained to us, is over. The Google algorithm update that pushed mobile-friendliness was rolled out on April 21st, so we’ve had a little over a month to see its effects. This update changed how the search engine evaluated and ranked various websites. Clearly Google wanted to improve a mobile users experience by increasing the visibility of mobile-friendly sites and decreasing the visibility of non-mobile-friendly sites. Many online communities heralded this update as the next big game-changer in the mobile world but the results seem to have been less than apocalyptic. Were you affected? Thankfully the aftermath of Mobilegeddon wasn’t quite as dramatic as some predicted it would be. While some websites reported minimal effects, very few, if any, have yet to reveal any catastrophic drop in their search rankings. The rollout was slow and after the first few days a handful of major sites were penalized, but they weren’t completely blown off the face of the Earth either. Instead, they dropped a bit in the search rankings while a few other sites correspondingly rose. All in all, not much shifted greatly. Did you survive? It wasn’t “The End.” This wasn’t the first time that a Google update announcement has caused a lot of unnecessary drama and it certainly won’t be the last. They just want users to have the best possible experience regardless of what type of device they’re using. Google will continue making regular updates and those will continue to vary in scale from the hardly noticeable to the truly game-changing. Looking ahead to future updates, take the appropriate precautionary measures, let the cards fall where they may, and you will survive, but also think of it as an opportunity to advance your business with a website that keeps up with modern developments and invest in mobile technology and mobile marketing strategies because they’re not going away any time soon. What’s next? At this point, if your website still isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s not actually the end of the world, but you may need to consider the ramifications of remaining unfriendly. If your website gains a lot of visitors from mobile devices, it may be worth it to invest in optimizing your site for those mobile customers to create a superior user experience. Inspiring mobile sites are ultimately a good thing for your business and a great thing for the Internet in general. Once you’ve tackled the development of a mobile-friendly site, then it’s time to start looking into some of Google’s latest enhancements: fact-checking and structured data. Contact the web experts from Skynet Solutions at 918-895-1982 for assistance in this new “mobile-friendly” world and we will help make sure your customers have the best experience possible.