On April 21st 2015, Google released its mobile friendly update. Lets uncover some SEO facts to get an understanding of what this update is all about.
The mobile-friendly ranking algorithm, is based on a page-by-page and works on a real time mechanism. It has a similar impact in comparison to Panda or Penguin.
Google answered a questioned related to the new mobile-friendly ranking algorithm from a Google+ hangout. Two main takeouts were identified from it:
- In this algorithm, there are no specific degrees by which mobile friendliness is measured. You are either mobile-friendly or you are not mobile-friendly.
- The quickest way to see if your web page supports this algorithm is to check if you have the mobile-friendly label present in the live mobile search engine results. In case it is not, you can use a mobile-friendly testing tool.
The official Google tool is called Mobile Friendly Test
Mobile Friendliness
The algorithm used to ascertain mobile-friendliness is an on or off algorithm, based on page-by-page criteria. It is not dependent on the degree of mobile-friendliness of your pages. It is dependent on if it is mobile-friendly or not. What falls under the mobile-friendly criteria is, the use of small font sizes, the tap links to the buttons are arranged close together, the content is readable etc. If your pages have these qualifications then you can benefit from the ranking update. However, there are several other facts to determine the ranking as well.
How to check if your pages are mobile friendly
Simply take your phone and access your web site. Look for a gray mobile friendly label in the description extract. If it is there and you can see it, this means that Google qualifies your website as mobile-friendly. If so, a mobile friendly testing tool will also be able to confirm this for you. If not, then your website is not mobile-friendly.
This should provide you with a better understanding of the Google mobile-friendly algorithm update. Make sure that your website is mobile friendly if not there are a few tools that can easily build a mobile website for you. One of them is Duda.
By Manesh Ram, Digital Marketing Specialist. Please follow @maneshram & Meta
