Google's Mobile-Friendly Update
Are You Ready for Google’s Big Mobile Update?
It’s not often – in fact it’s unheard of – for Google to announce when they will be rolling out an update to their search algorithm. But starting on April 21, the search giant will begin ranking sites based on how well they’re designed for mobile devices.
Why is Google making this big change?
The use of smartphones and tablets has exploded in recent years. A report from eMarketer shows how 2015 will be the year when “… the majority of spend, organic traffic and paid clicks comes from smartphones and tablets, surpassing traditional desktop/laptop search activity.”
In a Google Webmaster blog post regarding the update, the company explains “As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns.”
What websites will the update affect?
After next Tuesday, search results from a mobile device will change from sites that are the most popular to ones who are the most popular AND mobile-friendly. Up until now, rankings on a mobile-initiated search correlated with the rankings of one initiated on a traditional computer.
It’s expected this change will only affect searches from mobile devices for now, but many expect this ranking signal will affect traditional desktop searches in the future too.
Google has been emphasizing the importance of being mobile-friendly for quite some time – April 21, 2015, will mark a big leap in following through on these statements
Will it affect my entire site, or just certain pages?
Although Google doesn’t address this question directly, they do currently assign a “mobile-friendly” label to individual pages on a search engine results page (SERP). Their mobile analyzer tool also looks at individual pages, so that’s one clue indicating Google will judge an individual page’s mobile compatibility rather than the entire site.
If you’re using a responsive design, then this is a moot point since all pages on your site display based on the device accessing it. Sites with separate mobile-friendly URLs (i.e. m.yourdomain.com) will need to watch their traffic closely as it is unclear whether the whole domain will suffer or if only a few individual pages will.
How can I found out if my website is mobile-friendly?
Google has a quick yes or no tool webmasters can use, but if you would like further information on specific issues, you will need to log into your Google Webmaster Tools account and click “Mobile Usability” under the “Search Traffic” folder.
Yikes – my site is not mobile-friendly. What can I do?
If you have done nothing to make your site mobile friendly, you need to start now. Not tomorrow, not after breakfast, NOW!
The data referenced above should be warning enough …
If you have a separate mobile domain, you may be able to address any issues you discover through Google’s Webmaster tools for a temporary fix.
But to really ensure your entire site is mobile-friendly, you should consider a responsive design.
Online Potential is an Orlando-based internet marketing and design firm that can help ensure your website is ready for this monumental update. We’ve designed hundreds of responsive sites and have the expertise to discover and address any issues you may have with your existing mobile compatible pages.
Don’t start losing traffic and revenues because your site isn’t properly optimized for the devices people are using to search for your products and services.
If you’ve tested your site with Google’s tool and it came back with a big fat “NO,” call us today at 407.278.5867 to discuss your site’s mobile compatibility.
