\’Mobilegeddon\’ – are you compliant with the big G?

Our favourite search engine has now well and truly forced the issue of being mobile friendly. The announcement and subsequent update on April 21st was an important step for businesses to seriously embrace mobile technology.

Responsive or mobile friendliness for websites has been on the horizon for quite some time, and Google has most definitely taken the lead. The update to the leading search engines algorithms will have a major impact on business models that rely on the power of search and appearing high in Google\’s ranking, and this update very much tie\’s in with the increase in web search on mobile devices.

Personally, I very rarely search on a mobile and can only relate the high volume of searches on mobile devices to tablets. It is common now with people being more mobile in the work place and socially to be using a sleek tablet, and using the laptop while peering over the lid at your favourite television program is gradually being replaced by the more versatile application based tablet computer

As the use of mobile phones and tablets grows in business and personal life, the need to deliver a mobile friendly website becomes stronger, and businesses cannot afford to ignore the algorithm change which is surely going to be emulated by Bing and other less popular search engines to capture some market share of mobile search.

I cannot imagine any business who relies on the internet delivering enquiries accepting a potential loss of there web traffic, and could be disastrous for those who don\’t bite the bullet and adapt there websites for the increasingly popular method of browsing.

Makes sense, but there is a more obvious point…

The real point has got lost in translation, \’more and more people are now using mobile devices to search websites\’. So if your customers are using their phones and tablets to search, and you are delivering content that isn\’t readable by the naked eye, your compliance or obligation is to change, and help support your customers in providing easy access to your services and products. This is a perfectly feasible reason to get on the mobile friendly bandwagon!

Google\’s reasoning I am sure has something to do with their 95% domination of mobile searches, and wanting to ensure they are still the leading search engine when it comes to mobile search. They have very intelligently taken the lead in forcing the issue, and who can blame them.