It’s panic time as Google’s Mobilegeddon is set to lower the boom on those with non-mobile websites.
Adapt or die is the new black in search engine land and for those who’ve ignored the call to adopt a mobile recruiting strategy for talent acquisition, despite several studies finding that nearly 90 percent of job seekers prefer to look for jobs from their phones, your time has come.
On April 21, Google will rank mobile sites over non-optimized sites in their search results.
It’s doomsday for approximately 80 percent of companies still without a multi-screen job search and apply platform.
However, on a positive note, this algorithm change will only affect mobile searches . . . at first. You’re rankings are safe on desktop search for now.
I say at first, knowing nothing of Google’s intentions, but one has to wonder how long Google will differentiate those search results from experience to experience. Since the company has always been about user experience, it can’t be long before they implement the algorithm for a multi-screen experience and extend this ranking formula to desktop searches as a way to maintain continuity.
Bottom line is this: Your non-optimized career site will be demoted in ranking as Google promotes other sites optimized for mobile devices (read: your competitors) over yours.
Personally, I see this move as easily predicted. Google has been rolling out mobile conversion tools for years now.
Also, this algo update will roll out globally all at once, not in the typical slow showing as with previous updates. Previous rollouts gave you a glimpse of the coming impact if you weren’t part of the initial change. The only certainty this time is your site will fall in ranking with everybody else who is not optimized.
Consider the fallout. Let’s say you were ranked on page one in the top three results for several longtail keywords. A number one spot captures around 32 percent of traffic. At number two you pick up only fourteen percent. And just under ten percent at number three. It’s less that five percent for each position below that.
And no one but a very determined individual looks on page two.
Mobile is already main stream and it’s making strong headway in talent acquisition. Mobile users expect your site, your jobs and your application to work on the phone. They are definitely more inclined to engage your company if you are.
It’s no longer a viable option to ignore the technology. Google holds nearly 68% of search traffic in the U.S., and a whopping 87 percent of the market share of mobile traffic. Not sure where you fall on the mobile grid? Find out here. Need help converting your platform? Go here.
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