Mobile-Friendly Ever Important for Search: Google’s Algorithm Change Coming on April 21, 2015
– By Dan Perry, SEO Director, Turner Broadcasting Systems
Google will be rolling out a new mobile-friendly algorithm on April 21st. This algorithm will be measuring whether or not content is mobile-friendly on a page-by-page basis as part of Google’s search engine ranking signal, meaning it’s important to ensure that all of your site sections and landing page types are mobile-friendly (not just the home page). This algorithm change is a nod from Google acknowledging that more and more people use mobile devices to access the Internet, and many web experts view this announcement as a significant change that will impact millions of web sites and pages, even spawning a humorous techwatch under #Mobilegeddon.
In all seriousness, there are two ways to check your site to see if it’s mobile-friendly. First, look for the “Mobile-friendly” label within Google mobile results, by searching for pages within your site on a mobile device.
Here’s an example from CNN; note the term “Mobile-friendly” beneath the URL:
Second, you can check your URLs using this free Google test to see if your pages are mobile-friendly.
If the result shows that you are mobile-friendly, congrats! If it doesn’t, then review the recommendations Google provides, which may vary from “Text too small to read”, to “Links too close together” and “Mobile viewport not set”.
Answers on how to deal with all of the above situations can be found within Google’s Mobile SEO documentations. We also shared insights on SEO strategies specifically for news publishers; take a look at our tip sheets on SEO for News and SEO for Digital Videos.
Make sure your site and pages are ready for mobile search. Don’t be caught off-guard by #Mobilegeddon!
