Google’s Mobile Update on April 21 will be huge. Are you ready?
Q: What is Google doing on April 21?
A: Google is changing their search algorithm to favor mobile friendly websites.
Why? Because Google wants to provide great user experiences through search. Mobile now typically constitutes 50% of all organic traffic.
Q: How big is this update?
A: Really big. Google has had two other updates: (1), Panda which affected 12% of all English searches; (2), Penguin, which affected 4% of all global searches.
Google is saying that this mobile update is much bigger.
Q: How do we get to 1.5% or more of total company revenue?
A: Here is a potential calculation if your site is not mobile friendly.
- Assumptions
- Typical mobile traffic on most websites today = 50%
- Organic search is typically 50% of all web traffic at least in the following sectors
- (Business Services, Hospitality, Media and Entertainment, Retail, Technology)
- 60% of all organic traffic is typically not branded
- Online sales as a % of total company sales = 10%
- The math
- Affected traffic = (50%*50%*60%) =15% of all company web traffic
- Affected Sales = 15% of 10% or 1.5% of all sales
Impact will be higher if:
- more of your company’s business is online or is sourced from online visitors.
- Google penalizes desktop rankings for poor mobile rankings. A real possibility.
Q: What if our companies are B2B or do not sell online?
A: The impact could be worse than losing 1.5% of all company revenue
How? Studies are showing that the vast majority of industrial buyers conduct over 50% of their buying process online before they ever contact the seller.
If your site does not support mobile, you can lose up to 50% of your potential buying market. But you might not feel the pain for months as the buyers could be early in their decision process.
Here is what a recent study showed:
- 68% of B2B buyers now purchase goods online, up from 57% in the 2013
- The number of respondents who spent 90% or more of their budgets online in the last year doubled from 2013, increasing from 9 to 18%
- 44% percent of respondents have researched company products on a smartphone or tablet in the past year, compared with 41 percent in 2013
- 30% of B2B buyers report they research at least 90 percent of products online before purchasing, up from 22% in 2013
Do you want to negatively impact your sales funnel by close to 50% or more?
Q: How can I tell if my company’s website passes Google’s muster?
A: Run their Google mobile website test (click here)
Q: What if it fails? What are my options
A: Get specific pages “mobilized” that show high mobile traffic. Given how close we are to April 21:
- Target those pages on your websites that are most trafficked by mobile users. Those are the pages Google will see first and process.
- Ask for the plan that fixes the entire site and puts mobile first.
- Think about adding a director to your board who understands the digital landscape and can advise at the executive team level. This director should be able to communicate impact in plain business terms.
- Contact us if you need some short term advice or assistance.
