Mobilegeddon Report: P&G, Unilever, and Kraft consumer brands

Didit Editorial

10 years ago

Mobilegeddon update: [fergcorp_cdt_single date=”21 April 2015″].

April 20, 2015: Today we report on the mobile-friendliness of the individual brand sites of Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, and Kraft. 125 sites were tested using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Page. Summary results are included, plus the complete test results. Testing was begun on 4/19 and concluded on 4/20/2015. This report is our latest in a series detailing the possible business impact of “mobilegeddon,” which is scheduled to happen this Tuesday.

P&G led the pack with a superior 80 percent pass rate. (An 80 percent pass rate is the highest that Didit has seen in any sector tested). Unilever’s 75 percent pass rate is on par with the S&P 100’s respectable 74 percent pass rate. Lagging the pack was Kraft, which posted a 50 percent mobile-friendliness score.

Analysis

It is important to note that even if a given brand site isn’t “mobile-friendly” according to Google’s destination, any down-ranking of organic results on mobile devices may not cause a corresponding loss in mobile traffic. Many queries for well-known product brands are brand-specific, not queries using terms relevant to the benefits/features of the products themselves. And people searching for “Prilosec” or “Luvs Diapers” are unlikely to wind up at a competitor’s destination URL, even if the destination site isn’t mobile-friendly according to Google.

Further reducing any possible negative business consequences of the 4/21 mobile algorithm update is the simple fact that none of the sampled sites are B2C sites. Most if not all of these products are available for sale at Amazon and at other online retail sites, which are already mobile-friendly. In some cases landing on a retailer’s page is exactly what the searcher wants, making the issue of mobile-friendliness of the brand site moot.

Still, given that brand sites are intended to project the positive qualities of the product represented, build affinity, reinforce offline media messaging, and serve as targets for links on social media, it makes sense that these properties provide an experience that is as fulfilling on a mobile phone as it is a desktop display device. For this reason it would make sense for sites failing Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to be brought into compliance as soon as is feasible.