Mobilegeddon: Why your Restaurant Needs a Responsive Site

If your restaurant has a website, you’ve probably heard the term “SEO” thrown around quite a bit, but might not be exactly sure what it means. “SEO” stands for “search engine optimization,” and is one of the most important factors to consider when thinking about how effective your restaurant’s website will be. So why are we talking about it here, in a post about responsive sites? And what exactly is “mobilegeddon?”

As the larger search engine in the world and probably the number one way that new visitors find your site, Google has a huge impact on the landscape of SEO, and in a big way helps determine the industry metrics for what kinds of sites are “search engine optimized.” If your site does well in SEO rankings, that means that when someone types a word or phrase related to your location and industry, your business’s site should come out at the top of search results. And since so many searches around the world are done on Google’s engine, that means that Google’s policies dictate in a big way the overall SEO friendliness of your site.

Put simply, what Google says, goes. At Least in the world of SEO, any business that wants to “rank high for a certain search term has to keep Google’s ranking policies in mind. So what’s “mobilegeddon,” and why should you care?

Mobilegeddon, and the New SEO World

Every few fiscal quarters or so, Google will roll out some kind of change in their SEO metrics, in the pursuit of keeping the web content that they deliver to the top of their search results as high quality as possible. In the past Google has prioritized sites in their searches that deliver well written, informative, authoritative content. But they also have always had something to say about how the format, coding, and back end of our site influences SEO metrics. However, that half of your site’s SEO rating has become more important than ever.

“Responsive websites” are those designed and coded from a technical perspective with one goal in mind: to look nice on as many different screen sizes as possible, and be able to adapt to small screens and mobile devices specifically. And in the most recent Google updates that has been called, you guessed it, “mobilegedon,” the SEO world has moved massively in favor of responsive sites. Now, if you want your site to come up high on Google search results pages, it has to look nice on a mobile device, and be optimized to be “responsive” across many platforms.

Like we said, Google is always updating their metrics. But this update is a very, very big one. Where content was once king in the SEO world, and your restaurant’s website would do well in search results if you used some good keywords and had a good blog, formatting now makes a bigger difference than ever for your site’s success. Sites that once ranked high may be buried far down in search results today, based simply on the fact that the SEO world has changed. Mobilegeddon has struck.

What New SEO Metrics Mean for your Restaurant’s Website

All of this “mobilegeddon” talk has a big impact on your restaurant and the success of your site, but what that impact is exactly isn’t always clear. Don’t worry, we are here to make things as straightforward for restaurant owners as possible.

First, you can think of mobilegeddon as a big opportunity. Sites that once ranked high for terms like “dinner” in your area may not rank as highly anymore, and there may be a chance for your business to take the top spots on Google’s search results. If your site is mobile optimized, you will see your SEO ranking jump, and with it you will see more visitors to your site and more customers at your brick and mortar location. Mobilegeddon has shaken up the playing field, but if you approach new metrics the right way, you can come out on top.

Second, you should think of mobilegeddon as a potentially dangerous update for your site if you don’t take action. Not to be pessimistic or alarmist, but this update has such a big impact on the SEO world that it needs to be talked about. If you ignore the new metrics entirely, the best content in the world and the nicest looking website won’t rank you as high in Google results. And because of that, your business won’t do as well.

So what should you do about it? As soon as possible, talk to a site designer about how to make your restaurant’s website responsive. Call up Orders2Me and ask about “mobilegeddon,” and we can walk you through our approach to responsive sites that will help your SEO rankings. No matter who you call or what you do, don’t ignore mobilegeddon all together, or face the doomsday consequences for your business.