Mobilegeddon Report: Long Island lawyers

Didit Editorial

10 years ago

April 17, 2015: Thousands of lawyers work on Long Island, with many using their web sites to represent and promote their firms online. In this report, Didit surveys a sample of 50 Long Island law firms to provide a view of this sector’s vulnerability to the forthcoming Google mobile algorithm changes announced this past February 26th. The scenario created by this announcement has been dubbed “mobilegeddon” in the SEO and webmaster communities.

This sample of Long Island legal professionals was drawn from two sources:

1. Lawyers listed on lipulse.com’s “Top Legal Eagles” feature profiling influential Long Island attorneys.
2. Lawyers listed on the list curated by longislandlawyers.com.

This study is the latest in our pre-4/21/15 series of evaluative surveys, which, to date, have included:

a) Major U.S. PR Firms (published 4/2/15)
b) Large-cap companies on Long Island (published 4/6/15)
c) Major New York-based advertising agencies (published 4/9/15)
d) Major U.S. charities (published 4/14/2015)
e) Major “white shoe” law firms in the U.S. (published 4/15/15)
f) Big CPA/accountancy firms (published 4/15/16).
g) Top-rated New York-area hospitals (published 4/17/2015)
h) S&P 100 companies (published 4/17/2015)

Methodology

Didit ran each Long Island law firm site through Google’s Mobile Friendly Test application page (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/) to see whether Google considers each site “mobile-friendly.” The specific error types causing any test failures were logged, and a screen capture was made of each report. Testing was begun and concluded on 4/16/2015.

Here is a summary of Didit’s findings:

1. 60 percent (30) of the 50 law firm sites surveyed are fully “mobile-friendly” according to Google’s definition.

2. The most common errors seen on the 20 legal sites failing Google’s Mobile Friendly test were:

a). Links spaced too closely together to be easily clicked on mobile devices. 16 sites had this error.
b) Mobile viewports not being set correctly. This error can cause the site to render in less than 100 percent of mobile display space. 14 failing sites had this error.
c) Text being set at a size too small to read on mobile devices. 14 failing sites had this error.
d.) Blocking of resources necessary for the Googlebot to correctly parse the resources referenced by the web page. 12 legal sites had this error.
e) Content wider than screen. This error can cause the site to become arbitrarily “cropped” along the horizontal dimension when viewed on a mobile device. 7 failing sites had this error.

Analysis

Lawyers on Long Island use their web sites for a variety of purposes. Such sites provide an opportunity for them to convey a powerful branding message, post news about legal wins, recruit qualified staff, and provide an easy way for prospective clients to learn about their legal services and approach them directly. Some even advertise their services via PPC ads, competing for top-ranking on terms such as “Long Island Lawyer,” “Nassau County Divorce Attorney,” and other competitive keywords.
>A sector pass rate of 60 percent isn’t terrible (several industry sectors surveyed by Didit performed much more poorly). In fact, Long Island lawyers did much better than the “white shoe” law sector, which posted a lackluster 40 percent pass rate on the Mobile Friendly Test. But a 60 percent pass rate is well below the healthy benchmark of 74 percent set by companies in the S&P 100 list. Given the significant investment many attorneys have made in their web properties, it would seem reasonable that site functionality include a way to render the lawyers messaging equally well on whatever devices prospects or other interested parties use to access these sites.

The fact that a given law site fails to pass Google’s Mobile Friendly Test does not mean that it will be invisible or inaccessible on mobile devices. But Google has indicated that poor showings on this test may result in less visibility in search results made from mobile devices under certain circumstances. This is a growing concern as mobile traffic — and searches made on mobile devices — increase in importance in the months and years ahead. Digital marketing consultancy firm Emarketer.com has observed that “2015 will see mobile search reach the tipping point — the stage at which the majority of spend, organic traffic, and paid clicks comes from smart phones and tablets.”

Didit’s findings should not be cause for panic in Long Island’s legal community. In most cases the actual problems causing a “Fail” on Google’s Mobile Test can be quickly resolved — sometimes in under an hour. But because Long Island lawyers have only a few days to rectify these problems, firm management should take this issue seriously and make any corrections required in time for the 4/21/15 deadline.