The data

I have used charts from PI-Datametrics, which analyse the rankings of several high profile sites for a range of keywords. 

I have also used Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to determine whether the big G approves of these mobile pages or not. 

The results seem to show some interesting effects post ‘mobilegeddon’ but I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. 

Barclays

This is an interesting one, as some parts of the Barclays site are mobile friendly, and others aren’t. 

The homepage passes the Google test: 

This mobile friendly page ranks consistently well and Google’s mobile update came and went without any noticeable effect. 

Other pages on the Barclays site failed Google’s test, such as this one. It’s a desktop page, so text is too small and links are too close together.

Here we can see the effect of the algorithm (or what seems to be the effect) on the mobile friendly pages. 

British Airways

This BA page on Algeria is just a desktop page, therefore it has been flagged by Google. 

There are several such pages on BA and the following terms all lead to mobile ‘unfriendly’ pages.

Here’s what has happened to them after the update: 

Asda

Asda has mobile friendly pages and seems to have benefitted from this update. 

This shows the results of Google’s test for its trout fillets page. 

The trout fillets page is the burgundy line, which has jumped post-update, along with several others. 

Siemens

This is similar to Asda. Siemens’ pages are mobile optimised and Google is happy enough with them. 

The ranking jumps suggest that Siemens has benefitted from the mobile-friendly updates with some significant ranking jumps across a range of terms. 

In summary

These early results suggest that Google’s mobile friendly update has indeed had an impact. 

Sites which are optimised for mobile have benefitted, while pages which aren’t mobile friendly have fallen down the rankings. 

The results for BA and Barclays, with a mixture of pages optimised for mobile and standard desktop pages, seem to bear this out. 

However, these results only show a correlation between the date of Google’s mobile update and changes in rankings.

Rankings can fluctuate for various reasons, and there may also be cases where brands have panicked in advance of ‘mobilegeddon’ and implemented changes that have done more harm than good. 

What do you think? Are these ranking changes down to Google? Have you seen other evidence? Let me know below…