Google’s ‘mobilegeddon’: Who does it benefit?

Websites are bracing for Google’s “mobilegeddon” to shake up search results today.

Google (GOOGL) is changing its search algorithm to rank mobile friendly sites higher for those browsing on mobile devices. Sites that aren’t optimized for cell phones could lose their coveted page rank on mobile search. So what does this mean exactly? People searching for their favorite sites on a smartphone might not find them on the top of the rankings on a Google search.

Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task believes the search algorithm update could have a big impact on small businesses.

“Well I think it could potentially be a very big change for a lot of small businesses that don’t have websites that are optimized for mobile,” he notes. “I think the fact that Google telegraphed this back in February, they announced they were going to make this change to give companies time to adjust, tells you that they think it’s going to be a very big deal.”

The changes will make it easier for users to “find content that’s not only relevant and timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens,” Google said in a statement.

Google has also set up a Mobile-Friendly test to make sure web pages meet the criteria.  It expects the update to “have a significant impact in our search results” but will not affect desktops and tablets, only mobile searches on phones.

Task thinks the move by Google is not only about the consumer but about monetizing mobile and fighting off competition.

“Well if a site is optimized for a mobile device then the ads on that site are also optimized for a mobile device, so I do think absolutely that is a big reason why Google is making this change,” he says.  And again they’re playing a bit of catch-up here to Facebook, which reports tomorrow. So I think they’re saying ‘OK, we can’t seed those advertising dollars to Facebook or anybody else and so we’re going to do whatever we can to make sure we get as much of that market as possible,” according to Task.

Google led the search market last month with with 64.4% market share of U.S. internet searches according to comScore Media Metrix.

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