Google Search Change Could Cause ‘Mobilegeddon’
Recently, Google made a major update to its search algorithm. Sky News have reported that:
“Websites not deemed to be mobile-friendly will be dropped down the search rankings, dramatically reducing the number of visitors to a site. Microsoft and the European Union are among the organisations likely to be negatively affected by the changes to Google’s secret search formula. People can check whether their website is classed as mobile-friendly by Google by entering the web address here. Some search engine ranking experts have called the potential fallout from the changes ‘Mobilegeddon’.”
Source: http://news.sky.com/story/1468513/google-search-change-could-cause-mobilegeddon
The Sele School – Responsive Site
To determine how much this change will affect your school website partly depends on how much you rely on Google for visitors. There has been a lot of hysteria regarding these changes; many companies have over-exaggerated the impact to benefit their own businesses. This change won’t affect search results on desktop computers.
Of course, we like to be practical about this. Our view is if you are searching Google on a smartphone for a specific school name, then it is unlikely that your website will be ranked further down the search engine. On the flip side, if you search on a smartphone for a more general phrase e.g “primary schools in Gloucester” and your website isn’t mobile friendly, then you may well be dropped down the search rankings.
This could affect independent schools in particular, who may rely on prospective parents searching on Google.
But even ignoring search results, for busy parents on the move using their smartphones, having a smartphone-friendly website with an easier to use menu, larger text and links is going to be much better for them. Smartphone friendly sites adapt the website’s design to your phone screen width, re-organising content and layout to find the best fit for your screen size. Our mobile-friendly sites cost £295 for a primary school, and are free for a secondary school. Find out more here.
