Mobile-geddon is here: the big change SMEs need to know about

Nicknamed ‘Mobile-geddon’ Google’s latest update can dramatically impact search rankings. Make sure your website isn’t affected by checking that it works on mobile screens.

Following the latest Google update, websites that do not work well on mobile or tablet screens may suffer a drop in traffic and their mobile ranking.

This is an issue for many small to medium businesses in Australia because according to our recent Sensis eBusiness Report, only 26% have a mobile-specific website.

If you’re a small business with a website that isn’t mobile optimised, now is the time to get it fixed because you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers and returning website traffic.

Here is some advice on how to check if there have been any changes to your website from the update.

Check your website with Google’s mobile friendly check tool

Ensure that your website meets the criteria set out by Google by simply running it using Google’s Mobile Friendly Check Tool.

This check will give your site the all clear if it complies with their criteria. If not, it will outline all the things you need to fix to meet the compliance of the algorithm change.

Make sure you get through the list and fix everything to the best of your ability.

Have you considered a responsive website design?

Responsive websites adjust the content and layout of their pages to best suit the screen size they are being viewed on so that it is a good experience.

Google recommends having responsive design as its preferred option followed by having a separate mobile and a desktop website.

Have you looked at your analytics recently?

The first instance where you would see the change from the Google Mobile Friendly Update is within your analytics data.

We recommend that you should take a snapshot of current traffic trends coming through to your website from search engines and specifically from mobile/smart devices BEFORE the rollout of the Google update is complete. Even though it’s after the April 21st change, you can do this retrospectively.

Once the Google mobile results normalise, you should take another equivalent snapshot of the traffic and compare each day to its corresponding previous total that you extracted.

This way, you will know if you have been impacted at all by the change in traffic coming from search engines and specifically from mobile/smart devices either going up or down.

Have you Googled yourself recently?

Google your website today using a mobile/smart device and see what the listing/appearance looks like. Also take a look at the other results on the SERP page and make note of them.

Have there been changes? Have any of the other previously ranked listings shifted? Do any of the listings look different?

Following these tips should ensure you minimise any risks to ranking fluctuations from the change.

For more information on how to optimise your search rankings, visit the Sensis website.