Google’s New Mobile Ranking Algorithm is Coming on April 21
…and it’s going to have a big impact on sites that are not mobile friendly!
“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.” See the full post on
Google’s Webmaster Blog.
So, what this means is that mobile sites will rank higher when the search is coming from a mobile device.Visitors are using mobile devices in greater numbers and Google is encouraging us, no I think they are forcing us all to pay attention.
You might think that people visiting your site aren’t using mobile devices but check your Google Analytics. I checked a cross section of our clients and March 2015 saw an average of 30.75% of visitors used mobile devices.
This update could also be a “boost update”. This means that mobile friendly sites will most likely rise while those that aren’t will drop.
Mobile friendly sites will have the advantage on handheld devices. Google will rank sites based on mobile friendly criteria and show them first in a search return on smart phones and tablets.
A couple of other mobile things that Google is working on.
- Google is working on a dedicated index for mobile friendly sites. You want to be in this index.
- Search returns on mobile devices will identify sites that are mobile friendly. You want this identifier.
Mobile friendly is only one of many signals affecting your rank but every little bit helps. Let’s keep Google happy. Give us a call. Let’s discuss options.