By Rolfe Winkler
Google Inc. began shuffling its rankings for mobile websites
Tuesday, potentially benefiting sites like job board Indeed.com and
real-estate company Zillow Group Inc., and hurting others like
insurer United Healthcare Services Inc., retailer Zumiez Inc. and
IRS.gov.
Google said it tweaked its algorithm for mobile searches to
favor sites that look good on smartphone screens, and penalize
sites with content that is too wide for a phone screen and text and
links that are too small.
Given Google's importance in driving traffic to websites, some
in the industry dubbed the change "mobilegeddon." Google updates
its algorithm frequently, but this is considered by some experts to
be its most significant change in years. In an unprecedented move,
Google warned website operators in February that the change was
coming, and gave them tips on how to prepare.
"A lot of sites have been racing to beat the clock on this
issue," said Mark Ballard, director of research at Merkle RKG, a
search-marketing firm.
The change is also important for Google. A company executive
said at a conference last year that searches from mobile devices
were poised to surpass searches on personal computers.
But advertisers typically pay less for clicks from phones,
because they don't lead to sales as often. Encouraging developers
to tailor sites to look good on smartphones should lead to more
sales and consequently higher prices for Google's mobile ads, said
Matt Ackley, chief marketing officer of Marin Software, an
advertising technology firm. Advertising accounted for 90% of
Google's $66 billion in revenue in 2014.
Google also wants more users to surf the Web on their phones
instead of using mobile apps. Google sells ads that point to
websites, but generally cannot direct searches to content inside
apps. Some companies, including India e-commerce giant Flipkart,
have dumped their mobile websites and told visitors to use their
mobile apps instead.
"As people increasingly search on their mobile devices, we want
to make sure they can find content that's not only relevant and
timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile
screens," a Google spokeswoman said.
In a blog post Tuesday, Google said it had seen a 5 percentage
point increase in the proportion of sites that are "mobile
friendly" since its February announcement. The spokeswoman declined
to specify the percentage of sites that are mobile friendly.
The change isn't simple for sites to roll out, since they must
change all of their website's pages to optimize them for smartphone
screens.
According to a Google testing tool, the websites of United
Healthcare, Zumiez, technology wholesaler CDW Corp. and the IRS
aren't mobile friendly. Nor is Google's own Finance site for stock
quotes and related information.
United Healthcare has a mobile app, though it doesn't
specifically drive mobile users away from its website, as Flipkart
does. "We are committed to helping consumers access their health
benefits and information in various ways, including on desktop,
mobile and through customer-service representatives," a United
Healthcare spokeswoman said.
Zumiez, CDW and the IRS didn't respond to requests for comment.
Google didn't respond to a request for comment on its Finance
site.
Failing the test doesn't mean sites will automatically fall out
of Google's rankings on smartphones, notes Rand Fishkin, founder of
Moz, which makes software to help site operators improve their
search rankings. Mobile-friendliness is just one of over 200
different "signals" that Google uses for ranking its results, the
company said.
Research firm Searchmetrics said Zillow and Indeed saw a boost
in their search rankings recently. Searchmetrics said Google may
have started testing its new algorithm before Tuesday.
Jeremy Wacksman, vice president of marketing and product
management at Zillow, said the real-estate information site has
long designed new features with mobile devices primarily in mind,
because roughly 70% of its traffic comes from mobile devices.
Indeed didn't return requests for comment.
The government's preparedness for Google's change varies. While
the IRS website fails Google's test for "mobile friendliness,"
FEMA.gov and Healthcare.gov get passing grades.
Winners and losers from the change won't be fully clear until
after Google finishes rolling out the new update, which it said
will happen over the next week.
Write to Rolfe Winkler at rolfe.winkler@wsj.com
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