Google Search Ranking Change to Favor Mobile Friendly Sites
April 21, 2015 is a big day on the web!
Mobile friendly sites will begin to rank higher in Google Search results starting that day!
For those newer to how Google’s Search ranking works, here’s a quick guide: Google’s “Algorithm” is their set of secret rules and ranking priorities that determines Google search result ranking for every website on the Internet.) Google wants to present the best, most relevant results to users who are searching for things on Google and they make updates each year to stay current and adjust to improve and stay ahead of those trying to “game” rankings.
Google Search Ranking Change to Favor Mobile Friendly Sites
“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.”
Google is outlining that use of mobile devices has increased so much that in order to provide the best results to those doing searches on Google, with “best” meaning most relevant material AND the view being most helpful to the user, that they are changing their algorithm to weight in favor of mobile-friendly sites.
In short, being mobile friendly matters big-time these days and Google says so!
Google Mobile Items Info and Tools:
- Google’s full post on the April 21 Algorithm Change
- Google’s guide to mobile-friendly sites
- A guide to understanding Google’s algorithms
- You can test whether a web page is Mobile Friendly with this Testing Tool
Business Website Takeaways:
If you’ve been thinking your site should be mobile-friendly but haven’t taken the plunge yet, IT’S TIME!
Businesses need to think responsive web design as the best solution. This is where a website is built to “respond” to the device the user is viewing the site on. It detects the type of device and displays the site view in the best way possible for the visitor in a mobile, tablet, or desktop format. It’s one site that morphs into at least those three forms. Read more on “responsive web design.”
The other type of mobile-friendly site is a unique mobile website. It’s a second and unique version of a main website. Typically with this model a visitor comes to a site and if a mobile browser is detected, the site redirects to the mobile version. Often the mobile version is at a subdomain like m.yourdomain.com or mobile.yourdomain.com. The difference between this and a responsive site is that it is a totally different website on a subdomain and often does not include a tablet version.
If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s going to be time for a new website or a mobile site add-on. Before this was simply a good idea based on reviewing your website traffic, but now with this change by Google it’s becoming critically important.
Don’t delay, make plans for your mobile site today!
Need help? Our team here at Digital Hill can help. Contact us at our contact form below on www.DigitalHill.com to talk to our team about your options.