Smartphone collection photo by John Fingas.
Webmasters who rely on organic search traffic should mark their calenders for April 21st, because that’s when Google will roll out a major update to its ranking algorithm.
Mobilegeddon Is Here…
Dubbed “Mobilegeddon” by the folks at Search Engine Watch, the upcoming Google algorithm update focuses on mobile compatibility. Long story short, websites that are mobile friendly will receive a boost in their Google search ranking.
Impact on Search Rankings
Mobile compatibility isn’t a new ranking signal by any means, but it will soon hold greater value starting April 21st. As noted by the Mountain View company, the update will affect mobile searches in all languages and all countries.
“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. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices,” wrote Google’s Takaki Makino, Chaesang Jung, and Doantam Phanon the official Webmaster Central Blog.
So, why is Google placing such an emphasis on mobile compatibility? Last year, a report published by IBM found mobile Internet traffic surpassed desktop traffic for the first time ever. This means more people now use their smartphones and tablets to access the Internet than traditional desktops and laptops. Mobile devices today have faster processors, feature bigger displays, and have faster data connections than devices from the previous generation. It takes seconds to perform a Google search on a smartphones, whereas performing this same search would take 5+ minutes on a desktop.
Is My Website Mobile Friendly?
There are a few different ways to determine whether or not your website is mobile friendly. You can always fire up your smartphone and attempt to access your site, but this isn’t the best solution since different mobile devices render websites differently. A better solution is to use Google’s free mobile testing tool at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/. Enter your website’s URL, click the “ANALYZE” button, and it will reveal whether or not your site is mobile friendly. If it’s not, the tool will tell you why and what you should to do to fix it.
If your website fails the aforementioned test, you have one of three options available:
- Set up a separate mobile website under a different domain.
- Dynamically serve HTML based on the user’s web browser (e.g. mobile users receive mobile-friendly HTML).
- Use a Responsive Web Design (RWD).
Are you prepared for Google’s upcoming algorithm update?
