It’s already been well reported that Google is about to start to take more notice of whether a website works well on mobile or not. This change has been on the cards for some time, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Google will now promote those sites that work well on smaller screens.
What is surprising is the rather muted response I’ve seen from the business world. When Google announces an update to Panda or Penguin, even managing directors are on the phone to me. This change is surely as big as those?
It seems many people just aren’t seeing it that way and they’re totally oblivious to what’s about to happen, it seems mobile just isn’t on their radar.
My site works on mobile
I asked the marketing manager of a large manufacturing company what he thought of the changes and he brought up his site on his mobile.
“Look, it works fine”
What I was looking at was a smaller version of the desktop site. It was usable, but fiddly. He did have, however, a huge screen (iPhone 6+) so it looked OK.
To many, that’s enough. Being able to view a web page on one of today’s larger smartphones is probably OK in the main, but Google are saying they want you to go further. They want websites to re-size gracefully and look better on mobile. They want responsive.
When I explained the problem, my friend’s attitude changed.
“Google wants a technical solution and if you don’t provide one, your rankings might suffer”.
Ah.
The change in stance
Google doesn’t make announcements like this often. Usually their algorithms are to do with dodgy SEO techniques and underhanded methods to try to beat the system. Announcing that they’re looking deeper into the technical structure of pages is rare. In fact, the last real big change like this was their announcement that page speed was a factor.
The change is happening soon, too. Companies need to get changes done quickly because rankings could start to slide as early as mid-April.
Will people take notice though?
I guess you have to ask the question – do people even check their rankings on mobile? I don’t believe many people do; certainly none of my clients care about it that much. We’re still in a very desktop-centric world and until visitor numbers start dropping and people analyze why, I doubt many companies will care.