On Feb 26th, on the Google Webmaster Central blog, Google stated:
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. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.
Since this time, SEO industry professionals world-wide have been on high alert, examining the potential outcome of this “mobile friendly” Google algorithm update.
What will happen?
- The roll-out of the algorithm will commence on April 21st. But, it will take a few days to be fully rolled out globally.
- Your site will be designated as either “mobile-friendly” or not. There will be no in-between.
How do you know if your site is “mobile friendly”?
Pull up your site in the Google search engine results. If you are “mobile friendly”, you will have a tag at the beginning of the description that will designate that you are compliant.
Also, you can put your URL in this tool below (the Google mobile friendly testing tool). This tool should reflect what is in the SERPs.
Additional information on the mobile-friendly change here.
Why is my site friendly/unfriendly?
There are a number of factors that contribute to a site being friendly/unfriendly. Some of these are:
1) small font sizes,
2) your tap targets/links to your buttons are too close together,
3) readable content,
But, this list is not completely inclusive of all factors involved in what makes a site friendly.
So, what happens to sites who are friendly/unfriendly?
On April 21st, those sites that are mobile friendly should see a rankings improvement, while those that are not may experience a decline.
What should I do?
If you operate within a content management system (like WordPress, Drupal or Joomla), it’s actually very easy to resolve this. All you need is a simple responsive design them or a mobile responsive plugin/extension.
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