What to know about Google Mobile Friendly Algorithm Update

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What to know about Google Mobile Friendly Algorithm Update

One of the biggest worries about “mobilegeddon” was that Google was going to start ranking mobile-friendly websites higher on their search results pages, leaving non-mobile-friendly websites behind in the dust. This was expected to be particularly damaging to smaller businesses that didn’t have the resources to create a responsive website design or a separate mobile version of their website.

What Is Mobile Friendly

A web page is tagged eligible for ranking as mobile friendly if it meets the following criteria, as detected in real time by Googlebot.

  • Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices
  • Utilises text that can be read without zooming
  • Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to zoom or scroll horizontally
  • Spaces links far enough apart so that the chosen one can be tapped easily

This isn’t exactly what the Google mobile-friendly algorithm update does. Yes, the algorithm does rank mobile-friendly websites higher now – but only for mobile searches, which – once you think about it – is completely logical.

Websites that doesn’t target mobile users – for example, websites that publishes long, in-depth research papers – aren’t going to be punished. Their ranking will remain the same for searches done via desktop or laptop. However, their ranking will drop for searches done on mobile devices. This won’t affect websites whose audiences aren’t searching for them on mobile devices.

What Happens If Your Site Is Not Mobile Friendly?

If your site is not mobile friendly and is difficult to use on handheld devices then Google will penalise it and rank it lower on it’s mobile search results. To give publishers even more of an incentive to offer mobile friendly pages, Google announced that in May 2016  it will increase the importance of having mobile pages and that sites that are not mobile friendly will rank even lower than before.

Google stated that when it first introduced this as a ranking criteria last year, the premise was to give mobile users a better search experience. Most publishers and site owners have taken heed of this notification and developed their sites accordingly.

It is without doubt that mobile searches are now a high proportion of traffic on any site and will only increase in volume. It will only be a matter of time before mobile use overtakes any other type of search and it will be imperative for the success of any site that it is mobile friendly.

If your website is not optimised for mobile devices it will no longer appear in the top Google search results for mobile, meaning low visibility from mobile users and a reduction in overall website traffic. With 25% of all searches coming from mobile devices this loss in traffic could seriously limit the opportunities you have to reach and engage your potential customers. To ensure you’re still seen, consider optimising your website with a responsive design solution. Responsive design allows you to build or retro fit one core web solution, which then adapts based on the device being used, whether it is desktop, mobile or tablet. It is the ultimate in usability, enabling you to deliver content from one source to users on any device. With mobile browsing only set to increase and Google now taking action to accommodate this shift businesses would be wise to follow suit

How it impacts on

The update will impact search results in two key ways:

1. More mobile-friendly results will display in search.
This means that sites optimised for mobile devices will be prioritised in search results. This is a significant change, and will affect mobile searches worldwide, and across all languages.
2. More relevant app content will display in search results. 
Google have already started to consider content from indexed apps as a ranking factor via the introduction of App Indexing. This means signed-in users who have a particular app installed will receive relevant app content more prominently in search.

Previous updates have pushed towards mobile compliance by encouraging sites to be correctly configured and accessible via modern devices. As over half of all search is already conducted via mobile, and with the continued rise of smartwatches and tablets, mobile compliance has never been more important.

Read more How to test Mobile Friendly Compatibility for your website

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Please contact us for seo service packages at TDHSEO.COM.

TDHSEO Team

Email: tdhseo@gmail.com
Skype: tdhseo
https://www.facebook.com/tdhseo

Thank you!


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How to test Mobile Friendly Compatibility for your website

The mobile-friendly algorithm is a page-by-page signal, so it can take time for Google to assess each page, and that may be why it will be a gradual rollout. And depending on how fast Google crawls and indexes all of the pages on your site, the impact can be slow to show up.

It is believed that this rollout will have less impact than the original mobile-friendly update, which was called “Mobilegeddon,” which was supposed to have a significant impact on the mobile results, but not everyone said it had that much of an impact.

If you are not mobile-friendly, or if you want to ensure you are, check the Google mobile-friendly tool, and check Google’s mobile guidelines.

Here’s the guide

Does Your Website Pass the Mobile-Friendliness Test?

Google is making it simple for companies to test their website and ensure that you have a mobile-friendly site. They have created a tool called the “Mobile-Friendly Test” where you can type in your web address and see if you meet the new standard. When you pass the test, it looks something like this:

Screen_Shot_2015-04-20_at_1.38.34_PM

If you don’t pass the test Google will give you insights as to why it didn’t pass and will look something like this:

Screen_Shot_2015-04-20_at_1.49.49_PM

What Happens if You Don’t Pass?

If your site isn’t fully optimized for mobile devices, you will likely see a hit to your ranking on mobile searches. What that means is you need to have a mobile site up and running in the near term. Here’s where to start:

Decide How You Will Optimize for Mobile

There are several approaches for optimizing your site for mobile devices. Choose one of the following that works for you:

  • Responsive Design – Responsive Design is the number one choice by Google for mobile optimization design patterns. Choosing responsive design is desirable because it only uses one URL for your site rather than a mobile URL and a desktop URL.
    NOTE: If you’re already hosted on HubSpot’s COS then you’re optimized with responsive design. If you’re not already hosted on the COS but need to move to it now,
  • Dynamic Serving – Dynamic serving changes the HTML of your website while keeping the same URL. Instead of shrinking and optimizing one design, dynamic serving figures out what kind of device the user is experiencing your website with and changes up to code to show something different. This is a more complicated process, but offers an optimized result as well.
    NOTE: This approach is known to be a lot more error-prone so beware before choosing this option.
  • Separate Mobile Website – When mobile optimized sites first started to come to light, this was the way to create them. Instead of using one URL, a mobile website is essentially a new website built for your company for mobile purposes. It’s onerous for Google though. It means that they have to crawl two websites and two versions of your content. If you already have this in place, make sure it works properly. If you’re considering this option, make sure the other two aren’t better fits first.

Read more What to know about Google Mobile Friendly Algorithm Update

_______________________________________________________________________________

Please contact us for seo service packages at TDHSEO.COM.

TDHSEO Team

Email: tdhseo@gmail.com
Skype: tdhseo
https://www.facebook.com/tdhseo

Thank you!