Google is always rolling out new updates, and many times as businesses and marketers we aren’t too excited about them. They often impact your small business in a way that requires you to tweak your internet marketing strategy. Well, the most recent update is actually a good one, in my opinion. You just need to make sure your business is on board so you don’t get punished.
Launching April 21, 2015 Google will be launching its mobile-friendly ranking algorithm. This means that having a mobile responsive site as a business is now not just an option for businesses, it’s a necessity. Google will begin ranking sites based on whether or not the website is friendly with all of the difference devices that people use nowadays; iPads, tablets and smart phones.
Big takeaways you need to know:
- The algorithm will begin rolling out around April 21st. You have until then to make your website mobile friendly if it isn’t already!
- Your website is either mobile-friendly or not. There is no in between. There is also no scale of how mobile-friendly your website is.
- Quick way to check if your site is mobile friendly: Pick up your smart phone and search for your small business in Google. It will come up with a mobile friendly label next to it if you are indeed mobile friendly.
Give this article a read to learn more details about what you need to know to stay up to date and on Google’s good side. The article transcribes important parts of the following video, so you don’t have to watch the entire thing!
Google Clarifies The Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Will Roll Out Over A Week, Be A Yes/No Response & More
Posted by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land
Your Page Is Mobile-Friendly Or Not
The mobile-friendly algorithm is an on or off algorithm, on a page-by-page basis, but it is not about how mobile-friendly your pages are, it is simply are you mobile-friendly or not. I transcribed this one also:
As we mentioned in this particular change, you either have a mobile friendly page or not. It is based on the criteria we mentioned earlier, which are small font sizes, your tap targets/links to your buttons are too close together, readable content and your viewpoint. So if you have all of those and your site is mobile friendly then you benefit from the ranking change.
But as we mentioned earlier, there are over 200 different factors that determine ranking so we can’t just give you a yes or no answer with this. It depends on all the other attributes of your site, weather it is providing a great user experience or not. That is the same with desktop search, not isolated with mobile search.
How Do You Know You Are Mobile-Friendly
How do you know if your web pages will be mobile-friendly or not? There are a few ways, but Google said the easiest way is to see if your current pages have the mobile-friendly label in the live mobile search results now. If so, the mobile-friendly testing tool should also confirm this. Keep in mind, the mobile usability reports in Webmaster Tools can be delayed by crawl time and general webmaster tools reporting delays.
I transcribed the three times Google answered this but I’ll share one here:
Take out your phone, look up your web site. See if there is a gray mobile friendly label in your description snippet. If it is in the search results, if you see it, that means that Google understands that your site is mobile friendly and if you don’t see it then we don’t see that your site is mobile friendly or your is not mobile friendly.
[Read Original Article: Google Clarifies The Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Will Roll Out Over A Week, Be A Yes/No Response & More]
We hope this was helpful in deciding if you website is mobile friendly and how these Google algorithm changes will affect your business and internet marketing strategies. If you need help keeping your website up to date and having your marketing strategies align with today’s expectations, we can help!
Since 2002, Half a Bubble Out has been dedicated to providing marketing, advertising and small business consulting that meet the needs of our clients. We specialize in powerfully telling stories through inbound marketing to grow your business filled with more passion and provision. Based in Chico California, we serve clients throughout Northern California and across the country to New York.
