“Mobilegeddon” is Upon Us, but the World is Far from Over

The day was April 21, 2015.

On that fateful Tuesday, fear was cultivated within businesses owners everywhere.

This was the day that Google proclaimed doom upon all non-mobile sites.

Industry experts told tales of well-ranking sites disappearing from the 1st page of results on smartphones and being lost in the abyss.

The event was dubbed "Mobilegeddon".

Search engine giant Google created a major stir in the web world when they rolled out their new mobile-friendly algorithm, meant to improve search experience for smartphone users. Google's primary motive for this update is to prioritize mobile sites over standard ones, which will provide searchers with the most easy to read and navigate content available.

From a business owner perspective, this means if you haven't invested in a website deemed "mobile-friendly" by Google, you may see a sudden drop in rankings on mobile devices. Google has cited that this algorithm shift will have a long implementation period, so websites may not feel the full wrath of the update for a month or even longer.

And Bing has recently announced they will soon follow suit. In the coming months, they will unleash their own mobile algorithm meant to work similarly to Google's and give mobile sites greater odds of higher rankings.

The biggest change introduced from these algorithms is every page will now be individually indexed as "mobile-friendly", instead of a site being credited "mobile" as a whole. This is due to the fact that Google and Bing want to show websites that will always be simple to use as people browse through an entire site — not just a homepage.

Here are some of the other major factors currently affecting mobile rankings because of Google's update:

• Fully responsive design for all screen sizes
• Individual page load speed
• Content legibility
• Ease of user experience and navigation

To test if your current website is mobile-friendly according to these new standards, check out Google's Mobile Friendly Developer Tool.

Don't allow your website to lose its rankings or traffic — if your business needs help with an entirely new mobile presence or a responsive update to your current site, contact our team at MustBeOnline.