Here’s how Google’s Mobilegeddon will affect your business

Google has announced its new mobile-focused algorithm, which will rank mobile-friendlier sites higher in searches.Touted as “Mobilegeddon”, this has struck fear in many companies with either low quality mobile sites or no mobile sites at all, as their sites will appear lower in the searches. This will change the way its search engine recommends websites on smartphones and mobile devices.Google now favours sites according to how mobile-friendly they are, affecting not only clicks, but the decisions people make based on searches. On the other hand, this is good news for brands that have chosen a mobile-first strategy in marketing for their brands. Websites that do not meet Google’s standard of mobile-friendliness will be demoted in their search results.What this means for marketersThis new algorithm puts pressure on businesses to improve their mobile sites to stay competitive. The mobile sites will also have to adhere to Google’s criteria in order to appear higher in the searches, said online workplace Elance-oDesk.The company offered data showing how companies are already doubling down on mobile since the announcement by Google.Globally, businesses spent 80% more per month hiring for responsive web design.Spend also increased for other mobile-related skills, including Mobile UI Design (87%) and WordPress Plugins (52%), which can be used to make websites more mobile-friendly.In Singapore, there was a 97% increase in money businesses spent on Drupal, a popular content management system.In Singapore, there was a 100% increase in the number of job posts requiring Bootstrap and a 47% increase in the number of posts requiring CSS, a web design programming language.In Singapore, freelancers earned significantly more for jobs with web design-related skills, including web design (up 95%), JavaScript (up 63%) and CSS (up 49%) – likely due to businesses updating their websites for the future of mobile.*Based on compound monthly growth rate between January and March 2015.Experts advise:Siddharth Surana, GM of digital and performance marketing for APAC at Havas Media International, said the move would be a complete shake-up of mobile search results.“Brands who have not made their websites mobile friendly will see a drop in their mobile search ranking especially for non-brand driven search queries over the next few weeks when this algorithm rolls out,” he said.He added that Google had already made announcements earlier in February this year, allowing businesses enough time to work on a mobile-friendly site.“If visitors on the website are important to a business then it’s not about optimising for mobile search, but about giving the best user experience possible. We see this as a long pending move that will force mobile laggards to think about the user.”Luke Janich, regional director of iProspect Singapore, said having a mobile-friendly site would have benefited the brand or company anyway.“If brands/companies have a mobile-friendly site (responsive, adaptable or subdomain), then they are mobile friendly and will benefit from the update. Sites that are not mobile-friendly may lose rankings and traffic. If there are also issues with performance on the site, brands will suffer ranking losses,” he said.“Mobile growth in the region is on the rise, with significant traffic coming from mobile devices.“We have seen the growth of mobile traffic across many brands we work with. Searches will continue to be conducted on mobile devices, and moving forward on smartphones increasing the use of mobile devices in the region.“Going mobile cannot be ignored any longer – brands need to make the investment before their competition gain the premium position.”[Image from Shutterstock]