Mobilegeddon 2018: Be Mobile-Friendly or Be Left Behind

Then the almighty Googlebot looked across the vast Land of Web and cried, "Lo, desktop-only websites, the hour of your undoing is at hand! No longer will you rule over the SERPs. Lord Mobile-Friendly shall now rise to the top!"

Book of Google 3:26

Okay, maybe that's a bit melodramatic. But we can no longer deny that it's true. On March 26, 2018, Google doubled down on their "mobile-first" initiative. They announced that they had begun migrating mobile-friendly sites to mobile-first indexing. You can read the full announcement on the Google Webmaster Central Blog.

Why Did This Happen?

Google's publicly stated mission for their search engine has always been to provide their users with the most relevant sites in search results. When the number of searches on mobile phones began approaching those being made on desktop computers, it became more important for Google to provide mobile users with results better suited for their devices. Google admits that sites that have mobile-friendly content have been receiving a rankings boost in mobile initiated searches since 2015. With over 60% of all website visits now on mobile phones, there's no turning back.

What Does It Mean For My Site?

Make the move to a mobile-friendly site. Now.

Mobile usage for browsing the internet and searching for goods and services is only going to increase. The Pew Reasearch Center reported in February that the number of people in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 49 who use only a smartphone at home to access the internet has more than doubled in the last five years. If you haven't adopted a mobile-first marketing strategy, you're losing business to your competitors who have.

The March announcement also reiterated the need for site speed. As stated in a previous announcement made in January of '18, sites that load slowly "may perform less well" than faster loading sites. This will affect both desktop and mobile searches beginning in July. We follow Google best practices for site design to help make sure the sites we build load fast.