Google Making Changes For Mobile Sites

Millions of people — billions of times per day — rely on Google to answer questions on-demand. As a result, the tech giant says it is updating its mobile search index for mobile websites in relation to the relevancy of context for search results.

According to a blog post published by Google Product Manager Doantam Phan, a slew of stats has led to this decision, which “presents a tremendous opportunity for marketers to reach people throughout all the new touchpoints of a consumer’s path to purchase.” Citing the changes from last year from Google’s suite of app promotion tools and studies focused on cross-device conversions, Phan said, “there’s so much more to come,” and it starts with AdWords innovation.

Experts say that, until more recently, Google treated mobile pages as alternative versions of the same content. The issue lies in the shear problem that keywords and phrases don’t translate between the different platforms — mobile sites, apps and computer-focused websites — the same way. And that causes consumers to be frustrated.

The anticipated change is slated to impact eRetailers who have a mobile site. Google said retailers who already employ a responsive design won’t likely have any issues.

Google has plans to experiment further and update how this will play out for both eRetailers and consumers.