We all know that it's a best practice to have a mobile-friendly website, but it has never been more important. Google's mobile friendly update — nicknamed Mobilegeddon by the SEO community — started rolling out on April 21, 2015. The update has the potential to give a ranking boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google's mobile search results. In higher education, our websites can be very large, complex and our templates are often on the older side. Many schools still host plenty of pages that are not mobile-friendly. We'll help you make a plan to take full advantage of this change.

1. May 2015- 1
Mobilegeddon:
The Survival Kit for Higher Education
May 15th, 2015

2. May 2015- 2
Today’s Agenda
q Is This the End? The Real Impact.
q Are Your Pages Mobile Friendly Enough? How to Check.
q Deep Impact? How to Find Out.
q No Food in the Tent. Common Mistakes.
q Future Threats? Always Be Prepared.

3. May 2015- 3
Is This The End?

4. May 2015- 4
How Do Search Engines Work?
1. Search engines use robots, sometimes called “spiders” or “crawlers,” to
creep around the pages of the web using links like a subway system.
2. The spiders read and store select sections of the pages in a big database.
3. A users types a keyword or search term into the search engine.
4. The engine accesses that huge database to find the best fit using a top
secret algorithm.

5. May 2015- 5
What Happened 4.21.2015?
• Google released its new mobile-friendly algorithm
• SEOs have dubbed it #mobilegeddon
• Algorithm favors web pages that are deemed mobile friendly
• Pages are either mobile friendly or no – there is no scale

6. May 2015- 6
Context & History

7. May 2015- 7
Context & History

8. May 2015- 8
Area of Impact
Mobile Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

9. May 2015- 9
Google: On Your Side
Areas of impact
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/

10. May 2015- 10
Mobile Friendly Enough?

11. May 2015- 11
What Makes a Site “Mobile Friendly”?
GoogleBot detects the following criteria:
• Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like
Flash
• Users 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 correct one can easily be
tapped
• Overall touchscreen readiness

12. May 2015- 12
Site Wide vs. Page Level?
• New algorithm is run on a page-by-page basis
• Only mobile friendly pages will benefit
• Baby steps are okay!

13. May 2015- 13
The Mobile Tag
• Rolled out last fall
• Helps users identify mobile
friendly sites
• Same overall criteria to
#Mobilegeddon

14. May 2015- 14
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly

15. May 2015- 15
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly

16. May 2015- 16
Webmaster’s Tools Mobile Usability Report

17. May 2015- 17
WooRank

18. May 2015- 18
Deep Impact?

19. May 2015- 19
How is this impacting websites?
https://moz.com/blog/day-after-mobilegeddon

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What is the Timeline?
• New algorithm is 100% rolled out (took about a week)
• Google has said it can take weeks or even months as sites will
all need to be re-indexed
• However, some antidotal evidence shows that Google is fast
tracking the processing of some mobile sites
• Most experts expect that we’ve seen the brunt of the change,
but are watching it over time

21. May 2015- 21
Potential Winners and Losers
https://moz.com/blog/day-after-mobilegeddon

22. May 2015- 22
News Alert: Mobile Searches > Desktop Searches

23. May 2015- 23
Yes, Even in Higher Education
Source: Noel-Levits E-Expectations Report

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Check Your Site

25. May 2015- 25
Check Your Site

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No Food in the Tent.

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Common Mistakes
• Blocked JavaScript, CSS and image files
• Unplayable content
• Faulty redirects
• Mobile-only 404s
• App download interstitials
• Irrelevant cross-links
• Slow mobile pages
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/common-mistakes/

28. May 2015- 28
What DIDN’T Happened 4.21.2015?
• Not likely to impact brand specific searches
• Google will not “delist” your site if you do not go mobile
• Does not effect AdWords

29. May 2015- 29
“Never Depend on those luck
moments – they are gifts, but
instead always build your own
back-up plan.” !
- Bear Grylls!
Future Threats?

30. May 2015- 30
Users First

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Mobile First

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Mobile Goals
Short Term:
• Index your site and prioritize prospective student pages, alumni giving
pages and other high objective sections
• Work through them and make sure they “get the tag”
• Use digital advertising to supplement traffic loss
• Consider inbound tools like the COS from Hubspot
Long Term:
• Make sure your whole site passes the Mobile Optimization reports in
webmaster tools
• Redesign – including information architecture and content – where
needed

33. May 2015- 33
Future Threats?
Plan for mobile
“What the caterpillar calls the
end of the world, the master
calls a butterfly.” !
- Richard Bach!
Threat vs. Opportunity

34. May 2015- 34
Free Mobile Assessments
http://inbound.convergeconsulting.org/mobile-web-assessment

35. May 2015- 35
Upcoming Webinar

36. May 2015- 36
Converge 2015

37. May 2015- 37
Questions?