“Mobilegeddon” – and 8 key points to get caught up

The undisputed king of online search engines is launching its new algorithm that favors mobile friendly websites and promises to change the landscape of returns on mobile devices.

Google’s last big algorithm change affected 11 percent of all search results by some reports, indicating the new changes should be taken seriously in cases where SEO is a high priority (a complete detail of the new algorithm’s impact may still be a few weeks away as it continues to roll out).

Google’s change aims to provide more attractive returns for users on mobile devices, which are gaining more ground with searches. Returns on desktop computers should not change.

What this means is if websites are not recognized as optimized for mobile devices, their returns will fall — and fall hard in some cases — on mobile devices.

Websites that were ranked No. 1 in results could now fall to No. 10 in some cases, SEO experts say.

A few facts about Google’s new algorithm:

• Desktops and tablets will not be affected.
• Against its normal grain with algorithm changes, Google announced months ago about this change.
• You can test your website’s mobile friendliness: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
• The new algorithm has been nicknamed “Mobilegeddon.”
• “Mobilegeddon” will not kill us all — good websites will still get quality search returns even if they are not mobile friendly.
• Nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies still weren’t mobile friendly by early April.
• Even though the new algorithm is in process, there is no deadline to convert a website to be mobile friendly.
• Trying to retrofit an existing website design to comply as mobile friendly is likely not worth it. Redesigning in most cases will be the best route forward