April 21st has been marked in the history of mobile search as the day Google launched its biggest update yet. In recent months, there have been many conversations about the inevitable Mobilegeddon and the anticipated impact on websites that have not been optimised for mobile.
Needless to say, the uncertainty following Google’s announcement triggered a wave of anxiety among webmasters. Due to the limited data accompanying the update announcement, statistical predictions about the impact on current rankings have been little more than guess work. The update was released three weeks ago and only now are we able to gather accurate information to fully analyse the effects of the update.
In this post, you’ll find three considerations associated with Mobilegeddon, highlighting the importance of optimising your mobile marketing efforts.1: Cross-platform optimisation means greater brand engagementIn order to provide the complete digital experience to your players, it’s imperative that your brand is consistent across multiple devices. According to Google, 9 out of 10 smartphone users start a session on one device and finish on another.
By providing your players with a functional mobile experience to complement your desktop version, you are ultimately strengthening the level of trust between the player and your brand.2: Examine other SEO factors Mobile-friendliness is one of over 200 factors that are considered for rankings on SERP. These range from website content, structure and speed to the quantity and quality of links. Therefore, even though optimising your site for mobile can positively influence its ranking, it doesn’t guarantee a noticeable rise.
The good news is that the update creates an opportunity for you to strengthen your affiliate partnerships. Optimise your mobile campaigns and content by creating targeted device and browser-specific campaigns using your Income Access ad serving tool. Affiliates will be able to pull targeted creatives and links, as well as measure lifetime sales and ROI data.3: Mobile gets increased trafficDuring this week’s “Inside Adwords: AdWords Livestream 2015”, Google reported that search volumes on mobile have surpassed those on desktops in 10 major countries, including the US, Canada and Japan. This finding is significant, as Google’s mobile algorithm update directly affects website rankings for searches conducted on mobile devices.
According to analysts from research firm SEO Clarity, the update negatively affects mobile traffic to websites that are not mobile-friendly by over 33%. Therefore, even if mobile traffic has been low in the past, investing in a mobile-friendly update would prove beneficial in the long run.
To better evaluate the traffic generated through mobile, consider using tracking tools such as Google Web Analytics or Income Access’ mobile tracking solution for real-time data about players’ mobile-browsing habits.
If your website has not yet been optimised for mobile devices, follow our tips for getting ready for the Mobilegeddon. After the optimisation has completed, submit your website’s site map to Google for the mobile-friendly status and you’ll observe positive changes in real-time.
