Just kidding. We specialize in designing responsive websites here at UpTrending. We weathered the mobile storm.

 

Surviving a Post-Mobilegeddon World – What you need to know about Mobilegeddon:

YOUR WEBSITE NEEDS TO BE MOBILE FRIENDLY, otherwise Google will penalize it.

Boom – that’s it.

So, is Mobilegeddon really a bad thing?

Mobilegeddon is an update to how Google search results show up on your smartphone. Mobile-friendly websites are now ranked higher in searches done on a smartphone than a website that doesn’t adjust to a smaller screen.

And I am happy to be the first to say it. Let ’em have it, Google.

Goodbye bad user experience.

Remember last Saturday in downtown Portland when you were trying to find a quick vegan place to meet the pickiest hipster friend (no judgment) in the world for happy hour after finding out that the place you were supposed to meet at for the “best vegan poutine in PDX” was closed for a private “craft beer” party?

No? Well I do.

Ten minutes of scrolling through a multitude of vegetarian websites, right to left and up and down, trying to find a nearby happy hour, followed by 15 minutes trying to convince a ravenous vegan craving fancy french fries topped with fake cheese curds that the local steak house (with an extension to a MOBILE-friendly happy hour menu) actually has amazing humus.

All I can say is, “Yee-Haw Mobilegeddon!” I am going to put on a dress, rent a pumpkin and throw you a party! We’ll call it Mo-Ball! (Get it? Like a Cinderella ball for mobile…No? Too much? Fine, I’ll return the glass slippers.)

Good user experience = find bad food fast.

Now, do you recall being lost in downtown Portland trying to find a stupid steakhouse in the pouring rain, having to pull over in a valet-only parking spot and locking your doors whilst frantically Googling the address to said local restaurant? Only then to have the directions magically appear at the very top of the page, as though a fairy-mobile mother had placed it there for you? Well it was a Cinderella moment (and you either have a terrible memory, or may not have actually been there).

While Google can’t be held accountable for the quality of Portland restaurants, or the understanding of a poorly tipped valet attendant, I am a happy Google user because Google understood the type of information I was looking for, and made it a quick find.

Mobilegeddon = good user experience on your phone.

The whole point of your website is to help people find the information they need. Google is working hard to make sure we not only get the information we are looking for, but that it is also in the most desirable format. Websites that aren’t mobile-friendly (and impossible to navigate with an angry valet knocking on your window), are sent to the back of the search results line.

And good riddance. Yeah, I mean you, “best vegetarian poutine in PDX” website. Throw a hamburger site menu on there and maybe we’ll talk.

So is this really new news?

Google has actually been warning us about this for quite some time. Google began making efforts to help cell phone vegetarian poutine searchers (and other searchers, too) have a better experience since 2013, when it started penalizing websites for poor results on smartphones.

In the fall of 2014, Google also announced that it was now labeling “mobile friendly pages,” in an effort to save you dirty looks from valet parking attendants.

And in an unprecedented event, Google actually warned you that this would happen and sent out warnings to many webmasters if their websites were not mobile friendly.

So no, it’s not new. Google has crossed its arms, gave you a warning, counted to three, and now your website is getting a time out for not playing mobile friendly.

The good news for people who like to resize things on their phone needlessly and hate valet.

1. Mobilegeddon does not affect your PPC traffic.
2. This update does not impact searches done on tablets – only phones.
3. Desktop results are not affected by Mobilegeddon changes (but may still attend the Mo-ball if attending by mobile invite).
4. The algorithm is on a page-by-page basis, so your whole website will not suffer in rankings if some of your web pages suck (And by that, I mean are not mobile-friendly).
5. Google is running this update in real time, so there is opportunity to show up quickly as “mobile friendly” after changes to your site are made (most likely 72 hours).

If your website was affected by Mobilegeddon, don’t feel bad, you aren’t alone. In fact, Mobilegeddon is said to potentially affect 40% of top websites, including many top brands. Early results have shown that Reddit,  NBC Sports, Vogue, and Bloomberg Business have all been substantially affected by Mobilegeddon.

Click here if you would like to test to see how mobile friendly your website is on Google. If you aren’t happy with your ranking results, call us at UpTrending. We do beautiful, responsive design.

*The restaurant situations in this story are purely fictional. Names, picky characters, businesses, places, events and valet attendants are the product of the author’s imagination and lack of protein. Any resemblance to actual poutine, living or dead, or actual craft beer is purely coincidental.

**Is “craft beer” really just a fancy way of saying “micro-brew?” I guess I could just look it up on a mobile-friendly page on my phone…