Update April 21, 2015 as of official release: The new update only affects search rankings on mobile devices, includes all languages globally, and applies to individual pages, not entire websites. See the FAQ Page to learn more.
Is your website mobile-friendly? If not, now is the time to act. Google is giving you approximately one month to get your website up to their standard before you start being penalized in search results.
What, specifically, does Google want you to do? Keep reading.
Google’s Big Announcement: Mobile Matters
Google has been saying that websites should be responsive, meaning that they scale based on the device in which they are being viewed on. However, the company who ultimately dominates search results announced that starting April 21, mobile-friendly website will be viewed more favorably in search results.
Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?
How, exactly, do you find out if your website meets Google’s “mobile-friendly” test? Simply visit the Mobile-Friendly Test page that Google has created and input your website.
If your site is good to go, then you will get a page that looks like the first image below.
On the other hand, if your website is not up to Google’s new standards, then you will get a page that looks like the following image:
See what Google is saying about your website by clicking the “test now” button below.
What Will Happen if You’re Not Mobile Ready?
If you decide not to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, then your website will likely show up lower in search results on mobile devices. Although Google is not currently saying that the results will affect desktop searches, we speculate that it will in the very near future.
At the end of the day, at Uptick Marketing we always highly recommend that you follow Google’s advice because more often than not your website’s ability to show up in search results is directly related to Google best practices. Therefore, if you have been putting off moving to a responsive (mobile-friendly) website, then now is the time to make the switch!
Contact Uptick Marketing today to learn how we can help you turn your existing website into a mobile-friendly site.
