When it comes to online businesses, there is no giant that has a bigger say than Google. Website rankings, search traffic and effective sales are all intertwined. This week, Google is making a major update to its mobile search algorithm that might well change the face of search result pages. As important as the technical aspects are, it is worth looking into how Google can influence small businesses this way and effectively crush millions of them in the process.
From what we know so far, this new algorithm will start favoring mobile-friendly websites (large, accessible text, easy-to-click links, responsive design elements, the lot) and ranking them higher in search. Websites that aren’t mobile-friendly will get demoted.
By now, most of us should have realized the importance of mobile search traffic. As much as 60% of total online traffic comes from mobile and naturally, Google wants to up the user experience for its mobile search users.
How this update will effect small businesses?
This update is expected to cause a major ranking shake-up and could effect millions of websites, Google announced it two months ago, giving webmasters ample time to adjust. But anyone who isn’t aware of this update is bound to be hit hard by this update.
This majorly includes businesses that depend on people finding them through localized search. For example, coffee shops, local vendors, restaurants, online retailers, and so on. These are businesses that come up on local search when people search for them on their phones. Usually, these businesses depend on local traffic, and aren’t too SEO-oriented. So these are the ones that may see a decrease in the amount of foot traffic they get after the update.
It’s not only small businesses that are going to be affected by this update though. According to a study released by a marketing company Somo, a bunch of big brands such as The Daily Mail and American Apparel etc. will all get punished when the change takes place, unless they update their sites before tomorrow.
Now I am all for improving user search experience, but there are millions of businesses that rely on local search for earning their bread. And for the most part, local customers are happy. And I don’t believe that mobile-friendliness is a very good criteria for judging the quality of a local business. A far better metric would be popularity and user ratings.
If you run a website,let us know how you have prepared for this update, and how it has impacted you so far. Good luck 🙂
About Qasim Zaib
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