Maxine-Laurie Marshall investigates what Google’s latest mobile search change means for marketers
Google. Take it away and how do you think it would affect your business? It wouldn’t be pretty, would it? Well thankfully Google isn’t going anywhere: however your ranking on Google may disappear for mobile users. In a blog post the search giant announced it would be giving more priority to mobile websites when users are searching on their mobiles from 21 April: “We will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact on our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimised for their devices.”
If you search on your phone, the results that are mobile friendly now have a tag informing users. Brands without a mobile friendly website will be losing out on mobile web traffic – resulting, hopefully, in a call to arms for B2B brands to take mobile seriously. Tim Johnson, SVP product delivery at Somo, says: “The policy change at Google is a very loud and clear signal that a tipping point has been reached where those without a good mobile experience are going to be seen as laggards.”
Johnson is right. Brands who don’t move with the times will be seen as old-fashioned and out of date because statistics show people are now searching on mobile almost as much as on desktop. According to Smart Insights the most popular devices used to search the internet are PC/laptop (91 per cent) followed by smartphone (80 per cent) and tablet (47 per cent).
There’s no B2B or B2C in search
So people are searching on their mobiles. Now for the next roadblock in the ‘mobile isn’t relevant for B2B’ argument: people aren’t searching in a B2B capacity. Wrong, people don’t differentiate between B2B and B2C like that. If they are on the train home thinking about work they don’t think: ‘Let me wait until I’m back at my desk tomorrow before I look that up.’ They are going to begin their research there and then (data allowance willing). Highlighting this point, Ben Wood, global president at IProspect, says: “In general, there is a tendency towards an online mobile experience and the longer this is ignored, the more ground other B2B-marketers might gain from the lack of action.”
Speaking about the consequences of ignoring mobile, Adam Smith, MD at Rawnet, says: “Put simply, you’re throwing away a third of your potential web business, frustrating your users and giving bad customer experience. The common mistake again is to only see the mobile as a consumer device, thinking people are more likely to use a desktop for B2B. Yes, B2B traffic as a percentage is less, but a smaller problem is still a problem.”
The reluctance for B2B brands to go mobile is in some ways understandable. The decision-making process is much longer and more complex in B2B. But this is not a reason to avoid mobile, it’s a reason to embrace it, according to Philip Likos-Corbett, information architect at Spot Studio: “B2B, as opposed to B2C, often involves a whole group of decision-makers, who may want to view the website on a range of platforms at any given time. Having a site that scales badly to mobile or tablet simply looks unprofessional and could mean the difference between landing the client or not in this highly competitive market.”
So while mobile traffic may be lower for most B2B brands than it is for their B2C counterparts, it does exist and people are visiting your websites on their mobile devices. It’s become such common practice now that the world’s biggest search engine has taken note and factored it in to its algorithm. According to SimilarWeb data analysed by Clickz: “For Google, mobile comprised almost half of all traffic from June to November 2014, with 52 per cent coming from desktops and 48 per cent from mobile. However, in November, mobile traffic surpassed the quantity of visits from desktop, marking the turning point on the way to mobile dominance for Google.”
Don’t panic, but act
This is not designed to be a scaremongering feature. Don’t panic, but do make sure you act. Google has revealed the features it looks for on a page to consider it mobile friendly. It says: “A page is eligible for the ‘mobile-friendly’ label if it meets the following criteria as detected by Googlebot:
• Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash.
• Uses text that is readable without zooming.
• Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom.
• Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped.”
This is a starting point when considering what you need to change. Ben Austin, CEO at Absolute Digital Media, provides some assurance and highlights why panicking and rushing into the changes aren’t necessary: “One thing that is important to bear in mind for B2B websites that may be reluctant in making the change is that the algorithm will work on a page by page basis. This allows webmasters to prioritise their pages and reap the benefits as they go along.”
Google will also still be using some desktop signals for mobile ranking, like quality of content. Site speed is also thought to be a crucial factor. Gregor Rechberger, product manager at Borland, Micro Focus, said: “Mobile-friendliness alone won’t be enough from an SEO point of view. Google is also currently experimenting with a
‘slow’ tag on its search pages. This red slow-label first appeared on a few Android devices a couple of weeks ago warning users that the site is slow before they click on a search result.”
Being mobile friendly is driven by the same principle as everything in marketing: providing a great customer experience. If you’ve nailed your desktop SEO strategy, you’re more than half-way there. But don’t let that hard work go to waste and lose out on the increasing mobile traffic that could be coming your way. As Rechberger concludes: “In today’s business nobody can afford to be stigmatised by Google and ignore SEO.”