Survive Judgement Day: Mobilegeddon
Posted on April 21, 2015
By Theresa Chiechi, Designer, Illustrator, Writer
April 21st 2015 is a disastrous day for many company’s websites. Popularly coined as “Mobilegeddon”, Tuesday is the big day when Google looked at a website’s level of “mobile-friendliness” and passed-judgment, making it harder to find website’s who didn’t pass the test. With 80% of all adults owning a smartphone, and an estimated 2 billion expected to have them by 2016, websites compatibility on mobile devices is now crucial. Much like in the past, when company’s had to move business to the internet in order to survive, websites that aren’t smartphone-friendly won’t thrive especially with Google’s change to website ranking. If your site is not optimized for mobile devices, your ranking on mobile searches will take a hit, making it harder for people to find you and your business.
Nobody was safe from Mobilegeddon, not even widely known websites. Sites such as Versace, Nintendo, American Apparel, and David Beckham’s official site were predicated to lose ranking since they were not mobile-friendly. Google was generous enough to provide a handy tool to website owners that tells them exactly what his or her website needs in order to be saved from Mobilegeddon. Google looks for a handful of factors when judging your website. If your website uses text that’s readable without zooming, sizes it’s content to fit the screen, avoids unsupportable software, such as Flash, and spaces links far enough that the user won’t accidentally click the wrong one, then your website is safe.
You can still regain your search credit but everyday that your website remains incompatible for mobile devices is another day that you’ll lose traffic.
So what happens when your website doesn’t pass the test; is your website doomed forever to collect dust in the dark, forgotten corners of the Internet? Luckily for you, there’s still time for your website to be redeemed, but you should act fast. You can still regain your search credit but everyday that your website remains incompatible for mobile devices is another day that you’ll lose traffic.
There are three different strategies to configuring your site in order to optimize it for mobile use: Responsive web design, Dynamic serving, and separate URLs. The most recommended way of the three is responsive design. Responsive Design works by having a website with one URL that adapts depending on what device the handler is using. Dynamic serving works with using one URL that changes its HTML to serve different device types; this is a valid option but unfortunately is error-prone. The last option uses separate URLS, one for web and one for mobile, employing HTTP redirects.
There’s still time and hope for you website to rejoin the ranks of Google’s mobile-friendly sites. Even though change is daunting and Google Algorithm changes tend to cause apocalypse-like panic, modernizing your website will only serve to help you and your business. It helps cater to the way people are shopping, reduces friction on your website, and will generate more revenue and traffic to your company.
Give us a call, we can help to navigate you through this pending dooms day.
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