No need to freak out about Mobilegeddon 3 just yet

Like most sequels, there has been a lot of hype about the pending “Mobile First” algorithmic change from Google and yet another Mobilegeddon moment for SEO.

We have been following this story with interest as Google has signified this as one of the biggest changes it has made in a long time.

mobilegeddon-3

Gary Illyes is pretty much the Google spokesperson on this and he made another announcement last week at the Next10X conference in Boston.

When asked about the update he indicated that the change to a mobile-first index algorithm was more challenging than originally anticipated and stated that they “would like to launch by end of the year….[but] that’s unlikely to happen, at least fully.”

So with that in mind, we are pushing out our forecast for this to early 2018. Who knows, could this end up in the too hard basket and Google never roll out a fully mobile-first algorithm? We doubt that they will shelve the project as mobile is just too important to the future of search (and Google revenue).

Why Should You Care?

While this announcement has reduced the pressure on many businesses to get their websites sorted out, mobile will still continue to be a major factor in SEO for 2017 and beyond.

Envigo recently concluded a survey on SEO trends in 2017. The survey got over 100 responses from digital marketers from brand and agency backgrounds.

Here are the key points from that survey and it is clear that Mobile is a critical factor that will be on the rise in 2017.

SEO factors expected to increase in importance:

  • Mobile friendliness
  • Usability
  • Site speed
  • Structured data

SEO factors expected to remain unchanged in importance:

  • Number of external links
  • Inbound anchor text
  • Inbound domain authority

SEO factors expected to decrease in importance:

  • On page keyword density

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About the Author Glenn Marvin

Glenn is a Partner and Senior Consultant who has had a very successful career building growth companies in the private equity arena. He has a wealth of experience in both the digital space and strategy development. Prior to becoming a partner in SureFire Glenn built one of the largest digital teams in New Zealand for a NASDAQ listed global online marketing company & Google's largest premium partner.

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