A little known tweak to the Google search algorithm is going to have some pretty big impacts on site rankings. From tomorrow, April 21 2015,
any website that is not mobile-friendly will take a dive in search
results. What does this really mean, and is your site as mobile-friendly
as you think? More importantly - does Google think your site is ready??
The change is apparently one of the larger changes Google has
implemented recently, and their reasoning is sound. The search behemoth
wants to ensure that users accessing the internet from mobile devices,
have the best experience possible. That largely translates to providing
users with higher quality results. That's unfortunate news for the
approximately 66% of Australian business owners who have a website, but
not necessarily a mobile friendly site.
What constitutes a mobile friendly website?
This is quite important because it's not necessarily what you think it is.
Google classes a mobile friendly website as:
- Responsive, to adjust to the dimensions of the user's device - most commonly with breakpoints for tablets and mobiles
- Containing content which scales for the mobile experience
Importantly, it is NOT a website where:
- The website has content that does not scale appropriately for a mobile device
- The URL redirects the user to a separate mobile site (for example an m.dot)
This last point is a doozy - because until responsive websites came
along and became the defacto cool kid on the IP Block (tehe), a common
approach for mobile sites was to have completely separate sites, and
redirect the user to the appropriate adaptive site for their device.
Hence if I were to load a website from a mobile phone, this could
be accessed/re-directed via 'm.yourdomain.com.au' instead of
'www.yourdomain.com.au'.
Your m-dot adapted website is probably not Google 'mobile friendly'... bugger.
This all made sense until we realised that responsive was better and
cooler, and clients generally hated having to maintain separate content
for both the mobile and desktop versions of the site. In other blogs you
may read these days, it's clear that there are much better things to be
worrying about (in terms of content management) than having to
duplicate and manage separate mobile site content. At the very best, it
was often 'forgotten' about by content managers and became a nightmare
to maintain. Wiliam hasn't made an m-dot specific site for some time
now, and there are reason why, even before Google hatched this latest plan.
How will this improve the search experience?
Google is hopeful that by rewarding 'mobile-friendly' sites, that the
user will not only have less problems reading and using the internet on
their mobile devices, but access to more features and better content.
The reasoning is that businesses will focus on the mobile experience,
which is something that most people have clearly not been doing.
Remember that only in the past 12 months, mobile internet usage
out-paced desktop internet usage for the first time ever. So why are we
continuing to build (or put up with) websites that are only designed
with the desktop in mind?
The truth is, most agencies are not ignoring mobile - Wiliam for one
will normally start UX and prototyping based on the mobile experience
first, and then scale up for desktop. This depends on the client, as
sometimes we start big and then scale down. The point is not how we
focus on it, but that we do focus on it. And I think most agencies worth
their salt these days are similar.
When you are designing a website with mobile in mind, you start to
think about features that go beyond the realm of the desktop. Suddenly
things like 'my nearest store' or 'find restaurants/pubs/ATMs within
walking distance of my location... become functions of the application.
Been dating with Tinder online recently? How's that location finder
working for you on desktop? Oh that's right, it doesn't - because your
desktop doesn't have GPS or a network SIM. Suddenyl you have an example
of an application or website that simply won't work unless it is mobile.
Nobody wants to be stuck on the road squinting at some archaic
desktop layout, pinch-zooming in to read what is essentially all
fineprint on your handset's small screen. Whether you're looking up a
store's inventory, or trying to buy tickets to a movie, or book a
flight... there are some sites that do it better than others these days,
because the business has invested the time and money into a better
mobile experience for its customers, and importantly, it's potential
customers. Who would have thought that overnight, Google could find it
in itself to reward these people for their foresightedness and
innovation?
The bottom line is - Google doesn't want users to see YOUR site, if
it's not a good mobile experience, when they could be served up relevant
content from a COMPETITOR'S site that is designed for mobile.
What could this mean for adaptive sites?
It's early days yet to see how rankings will affect people who have
tried to do the right thing, yet are potentially penalised by the new
Google SEO regime. Suffice to say, if this trend is not relaxed / undone
and continues to favour responsive sites, then it spells the eventual
death knell for fully-adaptive sites. Not to say that all use of
adaptive templates is bad - we have created many websites in responsive
and fluid fashion that also adapts, but it could be trouble for any site
that is only adaptive.
In a sense, this blog could nearly be titled "is the adaptive site now a lame duck?"
Another thought is how it will affect service providers such as 51Degrees or
similar services. A developer would integrate a service such as this in
order to ascertain information about the user's device, and then load
the appropriate page accordingly. A responsive site does not necessarily
rely on such a technology - but an adaptive site will, since no
developer is able to maintain a constant up-to-date list of all
available brands and devices and their specifications - things simply
move to fast. Whether there is a place for such a service in future
remains to be seen, and to be frank, I would be happy to see the back of
these, as I've often frowned at the extortionate licensing fees they
can charge you on an annual, per server basis.
Is it all bad for non-mobile websites?
Not quite all bad. The changes are designed to affect mobile-only
searches. That means a user who is accessing the internet from a desktop
/ laptop will see a different set of results than a user searching on a
mobile. There is no reason to penalise a business for having a website
that was designed for desktop, when they are accessing it on the device
it was intended. The changes are geared at only making the mobile
experience better for mobile users. That does make sense.
If you want to capture the market for mobile / tablet and your web
experience isn't quite up for it, clearly this could be an expensive
change. It's surely going to generate a few phone calls to Wiliam as
some of our older clients wisen up to the fact that they have apparently
dropped in rank. The harsh reality is that they might need to update
their site for 2015 and go responsive. The thing with the Internet is
that unless you are savvy and embracing mobile technology, you are going
to be further and further left behind, if not just penalised by the
likes of Google. This is certainly a step that will help
motivate businesses to build a mobile site, if they don't already have
one.
Evaluate your page status
If you're not sure how your website stands up in terms of mobile compatibility, you can head over to Google where there are tools to evaluate the status of your page.
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