Google’s “Mobile Friendly” Update to Reward Sites

Google announced that starting on April 21st, 2015 there would be a boost in rankings for mobile-friendly web pages. This would include pages that are legible and usable on mobile devices, and it would affect mobile search results worldwide. (Conversely, pages designed for only large screens would see a significant decrease in rankings in mobile search results.)

When it comes to search on mobile devices, users should get the most relevant and timely results, no matter if the information lives on mobile-friendly web pages or apps. With more people using mobile devices to access the internet, Google’s algorithms are adapting to these usage patterns. Thank goodness! If you’ve ever tried to use a non-mobile-friendly website from your mobile device, you understand the frustration of wishing a site was mobile-friendly.

Is my site mobile friendly?

An easy way to find out is to test it with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test app. You can review site-level information on mobile-friendliness by looking at the Mobile Usability report in Google’s Webmaster Tools. This feature’s data is based on the last time Google crawled and indexed your site’s pages.

Making sure your site is mobile-friendly is now more important than ever

Google’s mobile ranking factors will now label your site as mobile-friendly, and they will also use that to determine if your site should rank higher in the search results. Yes, this is a big deal. Google clearly said this change in algorithm will have a “significant impact” on mobile search results.

If you’ve been putting off making your website mobile-friendly, now’s the time. Google told us it has been experimenting with ranking factors  up until recently, and now it’s arrived.

Mobile Apps Google Indexes to Rank Better

Additionally, apps that are indexed by Google through App Indexing will begin to rank better in mobile search. Google said currently this only will work for signed-in users who have the app installed on their mobile devices. (So, for right now, this means only Android apps.) Google explained this “may now surface content from indexed apps more prominently in search.”

To learn more about how to get your apps indexed by Google, talk to our development team. We’re experts at mobile-friendly development. We can show you examples of beautiful mobile sites we’ve worked on, and create a custom plan for you to make sure you’re mobile-friendly. To keep up with the latest tips and advice from WP Valet, subscribe to our blog.