MLB Trade Rumors Updates Its Mobile Site

As TechGraphs reported in February, MLB Trade Rumors planned a redesign of its web site to provide a more mobile-friendly experience. Thanks to a nudge from Google, that timeline sped up faster than the Milenium Falcon dodging a couple of TIE fighters.

According to a post today at the site, Google’s decision to downrank mobile-unfriendly sites starting Tuesday led owner Tim Dierkes to update the site, which was originally planned for later in the year, immediately. Dierkes wrote:

Some of you have protested the change, saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  We can debate whether the pinch-and-zoom non-mobile-friendly MLBTR experience was broken, but Google definitely thought it was, and will be docking all mobile-unfriendly sites in their search results starting Tuesday.  So while we were planning to go mobile-friendly this year, the Google issue forced our hand to do it now.

Dierkes told me in February that 43 percent of its readers were from mobile devices. MLBTR updated its app just before Spring Training, and the newly design reflects a similar feel to the Trade Rumors app.

So why is Google changing its algorithm? It wants to provide its users with the best results for users. And for mobile users, Google has decided it wants to showcase those sites that load quickly, feature scrollable content easy-to-read buttons for those smaller screens. Google disclosed its plans two months ago and created a guide and test tool to help web developers prepare for the change. For those curious, TechGraphs is mobile-friendly, per Google. Yay us.

Dierkes is still catering to his loyal readers, though. At the bottom of the mobile site is a desktop option, which will allow users to switch back to the old mobile site, as seen below.

Dierkes says he still plans to change its commenting system, which utilizes Disqus currently.

“I don’t trust a third party owning everyone’s comments long-term” Dierkes commented on his post today. “I can’t control if they go out of business, or any number of things that could happen with them. I also have no ability to customize or add features to the comment system or deal with bugs. It really just needs to be under our control, even if there are growing pains.”

Once the new commenting system is in place, comments will be integrated in to the Trade Rumors app, which does not feature the Disqus comments at this time.

“I think it would allow for better customization, better page load speed and also the content would be under our roof,” Dierkes told me.