Google has a new algorithm, will your site be judged as mobile-friendly?

What is it and what does it mean?

Last week Google officially confirmed suspicions that they are due to release a mobile ranking algorithm. The update, due to be released on 21st April 2015, will mean that mobile-friendly websites will be given a higher ranking within mobile search results.

When making the announcement, Google said they expect a significant change, with some sources saying it will have a bigger impact than both their Panda and Penguin updates. With 50% of all Google searches coming from a mobile device - I certainly think so too!

The new algorithm will be applied globally meaning that the update will affect mobile searches and results in all countries, across all languages at the same time - rather than being phased in country by country.

It’s real-time!

For those of you panicking at the deadline, do not fear (just yet). Google will review your site in real-time meaning that once you’ve updated your design, the next time Google trawl your site they’ll identify it as mobile friendly.

With that in mind, it’s important to remember that this works both ways. If you update your site so it is unfriendly, Google’s algorithm will kick in, which may have a negative effect on your ranking.

It’s good news for those who have part-friendly sites (e.g. your entire site is friendly but parts are not) as Google will be working on a page by page basis. Google will identify the friendly pages but the unfriendly sections will not cause your entire site to be marked negatively - phew!

You’re already being labelled.

You may have already seen, but Google has already got the ball rolling with this latest update. In an effort to help mobile searchers know which sites are mobile-friendly, they have added a text label under the URL (near the snippet) that reads “Mobile-friendly’.

Discussing the recent label additions Google said, “Users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimised for their devices”. Personally, I’ll always choose a mobile friendly search result over non-labelled one when on the move.

As the fight for the top positions in Google becomes ever-more competitive, it’s important that you identify any potential advantages over your competitors - and this certainly is one. In a recent report by Alexa (October 2014) which reviewed the the top 1000 sites, just 18% of them were mobile friendly - and these are the big guns!

Mobile users hold a grudge

Figures show that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they’ve had trouble with. Of those, 40% said they would then go on to visit a competitor's site instead. These figures emphasise the huge importance of making your site user-friendly across all devices, particularly if you have e-commerce.

According to Nielsen, 87% of mobile users used their mobile device for shopping activities such as searching for a product or service, price comparisons, or brick & mortar address search. Having a seamless experience across all devices can have a big effect on the amount of users that finally go through to purchase.

What can I do?

There are a number of things you to can do to help make your site more mobile friendly and give yourself greater chance of obtaining a mobile friendly ‘label’. It all depends on what the Googlebot detects when it’s trawling your site, it’s looking for the following:

The site avoids software that is not common on mobile devices e.g Adobe Flash
The site uses text that is readable without zooming
The site sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
The site places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped

Basic example showing a mobile-friendly layout.

If you’re unsure, there are two easy ways to check to see whether your site is mobile-friendly or not. These are:

The simple one: look up your site on a phone yourself and judge.
Use the Google Mobile-Friendly Tool to see if Google thinks you’re mobile-friendly.