Google has made its stance on having a mobile-friendly website clear. “Mobilegeddon” or so the mobile update from the tech giant was called, showed that they meant business. You either have a mobile-friendly site, or you feel the wrath. It is amazing that in this day and age, with all of the talk going around about needing a web page that adapts to people’s mobile tendencies, that so many companies still don’t have one. A study done by Moovweb has found that our fears were true, and that Google isn’t going to take you seriously if you don’t have a mobile-friendly site.

The study

Google’s algorithm is stealthy and deadly. We know so little about it, except that it can end your SERP life instantly without you knowing it. Slipping from the top 3 spots in the results can end up sending 90% fewer visitors to your site. That is the equivalent of an online death sentence. Moovweb tracked the results for 1,000 common e-commerce keywords to see what the results of Mobilegeddon really were.

The results

Not surprisingly, the results showed some pretty startling data about the mobile-friendly update.

  • 83% of top results were mobile-friendly
  • 81% of the time, the top 3 were as well
  • 77% of all 10 first page spots were mobile-friendly, too.

The aftermath of the algorithm change means that if you aren’t compliant, you aren’t ranking. What’s more, the study concluded that mobile-friendliness was more important across different industries at this point. This could be due to a multitude of factors, but in our opinion it is most likely caused by demographics of the shoppers, and products they wish to buy. The importance of being compliant was most heavily felt in the retail industry, followed by health care and travel.

What can we do?

Unlike most other updates, Google showed the world how to comply. Mobile friendly pages need to use responsive design, have correct button size and placement, and use reader-friendly fonts and high-resolution images. There are plenty of things that you can do, and you can also test your site freely to see if it fits the bill. So don’t just sit around and wait, get it done.

Google has spoken, and as we expected, they meant business. You are either with them or against them, and those who are against have a very slim chance of appearing in the SERPs. This study shows that the top results are almost always mobile-friendly, and you need to be so to even attempt to rank on the first page. If you aren’t with the program, you need to get with it immediately. Thankfully, there is a blueprint on how to comply with the changes. For help on ensuring your website is mobile-friendly, contact the experts at BlueHat Marketing.