It's coming. April 21. The Mopocalypse! Or Mobilegeddon! Or the "worst-thing-you-can-imagine-with-the-syllable-mo-added-to-it" exclamation point!
Mobilegeddon!!
We've been here before, most recently with Pigeon, with article after article warning you of impending doom. For some reason SEO operates a lot like CNN and FoxNews: the sky is always falling, there's always a new reason to panic.
I'll say this: don't panic. The sky isn't actually falling. This isn't what we thought Y2K was going to be, it's what Y2K actually was. Remember Y2K? You were prepared, did your legwork and things worked out ok. That doesn't minimize the fact that Google's mobile-focused update is going to create some hurdles in the short term.
The good news is this is a reactive change by Google. Mobile is very important to your customers everyday lives, so much so that mobile search has overtaken desktop search. So let's look at this a good thing that Google is updating their algorithm to relfect how we're all using search.
Here's what we think is changing, courtesy of Chuck Price at Streetfight:
- Responsive design does not have a ranking benefit
- Googlebot must be allowed to crawl CSS & JavaScript to pass the "mobile-friendly" test
- Mobile friendliness is determined at the page level – not sitewide
- Google is currently working on a dedicated mobile index
Here's what you need to do about it:
- Test your site: Google provides you with a helpful testing tool you can use to ensure your site is truly mobile-friendly and can be accessed by Googlebots
- Focus on Location: Mobile = Local. Build your listings on G+, Yelp, Yellow Pages and other listings sites. These sites have always influenced ranking factors, but their importance is about to get amped up.
- Stay on target: Google loves to move the goal posts; you have to stay on top of the trends to maintain and improve your rankings.
- Responsive versus mobile site: Make your decision and build on that platform. Both can work, both have advantages/disadvantages, so just choose and start optimizing your site.
If you were/are surprised that mobile is getting so much love from Google, you haven't been paying attention to both Google and the digital world in general. Mobile is absolutely where it's at, and this has been coming for years now.
So let's dial back the panic - Google is just catching up with users. Our phones are integral to our search habits, so mobile has to be at the centre of Google's results.
