Google
is now making it a rule that your website be Mobile-friendly.
As
of Tuesday April 21st 2015, Google is updating the ranking of
websites that are displayed in the Android Browser as well as the Google Chrome
Browser to favour smartphone-screen friendly websites as noted in the article “Google
search has a newfound love for mobile-friendly sites”, published April 21,
2015 by Lance Whitney, CNET News and “Google
starts boosting 'mobile-friendly' sites in smartphone search results”,
published April 21, 2015 By Chris Welch, The
Verge.
These
changes had been announced as far back as February 2015 as noted in the Google
Webmaster Central Blog post article entitled “Rolling
out the mobile-friendly update”, published Tuesday, April 21, 2015, Google Webmaster Central
Blog.
From
now on, webpages in websites that have been formatted for Smartphone screens
will be more likely to appear in the top ten (10) results for a search using a
particular web term. This latest change to their Google Search Engine algorithm
affects only search rankings on mobile devices in all languages globally.
Good
to note that even if a website is not mobile friendly, once webpages that are
formatted for Smartphone screens appear to be relevant to a search query
entered into the Google Search Engine, the overall web-friendliness perception
of the website will increase and so too will the search ranking.
This
latest change affects only searches done on smartphones and not tablets or
desktop computers. However, it has far reaching implications for website
designers and developers who may see traffic to their websites drop if they are
not smartphone-friendly and do not have relevant content that matches Google
Search queries.
Google Search forcing
Website Developer to make smartphone-friendly Websites – Small Businesses to
benefit
Google
is seeking to make surfing the web in your smaller screen device that much
easier.
Basically,
that means webpages that are formatted to fit the Smartphone screen, smaller
font and size-appropriate images. To this end, they've included a Mobile Friendly
Test site where you can enter your URL (Universal Resource Locator) for
your website and see how smartphone Browser friendly your website or blog may
be.
I
tested all of my blogs, i.e. My Thoughts on
Technology and Jamaica, MICO
Wars: The Teacher Force Awakens as well as Geezam, a blog that I'm the
Associate Editor and they all passed with flying colours. It was very easy for
me to make adjustment to my personal blogs My Thoughts on
Technology and Jamaica and MICO
Wars: The Teacher Force Awakens.
This
change by Google is certain to benefit small business owners in the US of A who
makes a lot of sales via their e-commerce websites as noted in the article
entitled “Google
Mobile Friendly Algorithm Gives Small Businesses The Advantage”, published
APR 25, 2015 by John Rampton, Forbes Magazine who are nimble and can spend the time to make
this necessary change to get more mobile customer.
It
however spells bad news for Government and Fortune 500 companies many of who
merely have a website to provide online support for their company's products,
being as they hardly do much business via their websites as noted in the
article “Google’s
“Mobile-Friendly” Update Could Impact Over 40% Of Fortune 500 Websites”,
published Apr 21, 2015 by Sarah Perez, TechCrunch.
A
study of 100 top mobile properties by Branding Brand returned the following
results as it relates to traffic from smartphone users:
1.
27% from Direct
2.
16% from email
3.
14% from Referral i.e. Facebook and
Twitter postings
4.
43% from Google Search results
The
results are as displayed below in this graph.
This
looks a lot like what my personal blogs My Thoughts on
Technology and Jamaica and MICO
Wars: The Teacher Force Awakens are experiencing in terms of traffic.
However, Government and Fortune 500 companies mainly use their websites for
support, so this “MobileGeddon” as many are calling it may not affect them
enough to change anything about their websites smartphone-friendliness.
This
is really more of a wake-up call and opportunity for small-businesses
operators.
Google Shopping Traffic
to benefit from Google Search Changes - boosting Smartphone Shopaholics visit
against Rival Amazon
Google
Search Engine changes may also have to do with drumming up e-commerce,
especially for their own online e-commerce portal, Google Shopping as explained
in my blog
article entitled “Google
Shopping Buy Button – How Project Wing 30-minute Delivery for Google Plus on
Merchant Pages might compete against Amazon's Online Shopping”.
During
the Christmas of 2014, nearly 60% of customers for Amazon, a Google competitor
in the e-commerce field, shopped via a Mobile device as noted in the article “Amazon
draws 10 million new Prime members over holidays”, published Friday Dec 26,
2014 BY KSHITIZ GOLIYA, Reuters.
Most
likely that driver was the Amazon Fire Tablet, which Amazon had produced expressly
for Shopaholics and has been known since 2012 by analyst IDC to be a nexus for shoppers
to access their online web portal as I'd explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Amazon is
Legally Blonde as the Kindle Fire HD Upgrade is CEO Bezos’s Confessions of an
Online Shopaholic”.
Google's Sponsored
Search Results in Google Search - Leveling the Prices with Desktop as Mobile
Search increases
Then
there's the plain purpose of boosting the price of Sponsored Search Results
appearing on Google Search as explained in the article “Google
Gives Boost to Mobile-Friendly Sites”, published April 21, 2015 by ROLFE
WINKLER, Wall Street Journal.
Advertising
represents 90% of Google’s US$66 billion in revenue in 2014, but advertisers
typically pay less for smartphone advertising. If Google could get website designers
and Developers to make their websites Smartphone compatible i.e. fit the screen
and bigger font, they’d boost traffic from Smartphone users using their Google Android
and Google Chrome browsers to make Google Searches.
This
would translate to an increase in developers registering to pay for their
website to be advertised in the top 10 first searches for a particular search
terms. That demand would allow Google to gradually raise the prices for mobile
ads and eventually bring them on par with Desktop and Tablet ads.
So
it’s really to your benefit to have your website or blog smartphone–friendly.
Here's
the Link:
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