For something called Mobilegeddon, the latest Google update for its search engine isn’t as scary as everyone else is trying to make you believe. I understand if you’re in disbelief – the whole Internet has been panicking for quite a while now over an update that could crush virtually anyone, big or small. But going deeper beyond the surface, the new Google update could mean good news for anyone that knows how to take advantage of it. Yeah, that’s right – even you and your small business can profit from these changes.
But, how? And why your business of all the businesses in the world? The explanation is simple: Google rewards sites that follows the guidelines deemed by the company as mobile friendly. In other words, the Mountain View-based company wants everyone to get on board of its idea of user experience as big player – in fact, a player as big as content, the supposed king up until this month. So, get on board with them and you’ll be ok.
Ideally, you already made the change to a responsive site months ago, even before Google started announcing the update back in February. Though that was what should have happened, there’s a chance you forgot to make the change or shrugged it off. Look, I’m not here to judge but if that was your case, let’s say you shouldn’t include it in your list of brightest moments. Google still controls what people searches on the Web, so listening to it (and acting accordingly) are a must if you’re to survive.
So, you didn’t make the change on time and now the update is in full force. Is everything lost? Not really. However, each particular site and its competition will determine whether the update’s effect is huge or something controllable. If all of your competitors have jumped to mobile-friendly sites before the update hit, then you’re already running them from behind. That’s because all of their indexed pages won’t just keep the rankings they already got before the Mobilegeddon –they’ll get a boost as a reward for playing along.
If, on the other hand, your competitors are in your same situation, you are in a less grimmer scenario. You’re in time to make the jump and make all of your future efforts count towards a better ranking. But for that to happen you need to make the change now. Here’s where small businesses have their shot at glory.
Though you might think that big companies had all of this figured out for years and are now laughing while they roll over their piles of money, new reports show that they are in bigger trouble than small businesses. Sites as big as reddit and Interviemagazine.com are among the biggest losers after the update went live. The same goes for big businesses all over the country and the world. This means that search rankings suffered a major rearrangement that is still making waves.
The timing for you is perfect because for all of those big businesses that didn’t make the change on time, getting back on their feet will be harder than for you. I’m assuming that as a small business, you’re in control of practically every major decision concerning to its whole marketing plan. So, you’re definitely able to prioritize the change to a responsive site accordingly – meaning right f**k now – without having to plan that much. Just contact the IT Guy and ask him to do it. It will be half as hard as you think it may be.
All of the above is especially true if your business relies heavily in localized search. Imagine someone that types “donuts in Sunnyvale” on their phone looking for a place like yours: if you haven’t made the change to a responsive site, that someone will get another recommendation by Google. In other words, if most of your visitors/customers came from organic searches made from Google, then your numbers are already suffering and making the change should be your top priority (you should even stop reading this!).
I repeat to make it perfectly clear: if you haven’t made the change, the damage is done by now. But that doesn’t mean the game is over. You just have to act quick and get yourself a responsive site (you know, the one with big font, easily clickable links that resizes to fit any screen) and start paying attention to the mobile aspect of your digital presence. Given how much it has increased in the last years, mobile is already defining the Web, so you start thinking a business designed for it or go looking for another job.
Don’t know if your site is mobile friendly? Use this tool to check it now”
