Back in February Google announced that it was making two significant changes to its search algorithm for ranking their mobile search results.
If you haven’t yet seen a notice in your Webmaster Tools account, then you’ve probably built your site correctly. However, if you seen such a notice and haven’t take any action, then you better realize that April Fools Day + Twenty isn’t too far away.
Mobile Search Requires Mobile-Friendly Web Sites
On April 21, 2015, Google’s mobile ranking factors will start labeling sites as mobile-friendly, and will also use this factor when determining if your site should rank higher in the search results. Google has publicly said that its mobile-friendly algorithmic update will have a “significant impact” on the mobile search results they return, impacting all users and languages worldwide.
In addition, Google also indicated “users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.” Therefore, what you see in your search results on your desktop, tablet, and smartphone might be completely different.
How Big Is This Mobile-Friendly Update
Considering that nearly 50% of consumers now use mobile exclusively when conducting online searches and that 91% of small businesses are not mobile-friendly, this update is going to be massive.
In fact, it will have a greater impact on Google’s search results than Google’s Panda or Penguin updates.
It’s estimated that Panda impacted about 12% of all English searches, while Penguin impacted about 4% of all global searches, mobile and desktop included. But remember, this update will only impact mobile search. And don’t forget that Google has said it will have a “significant impact.”
Mobile-Friendly Your Not
So what does all this mean? If your site is not mobile-friendly and you’ve been disregarding those notices from Google in your Webmaster Tools, you better get busy. Unless of course you don’t care about ranking well in Google’s mobile or smartphone search results?
However, we’re fairly certain that’s not the case and you will want to rank well for Google search results regardless of platform. Fortunately, Google has provided a mobile-friendly testing tool for you to use to test your site.
And if you want to learn more about the mobile-friendly criteria and how it may affect your Google’s search results, read the following blog post at Webmaster Central or a more current blog post about mobile-friendly search.
To Your Success and don’t be fooled come April 21st.
