Google has finally confirmed that mobile-friendly sites will be given preference in organic search results over non-mobile friendly websites.
This is not a new development - Google has been rumouring about it for over a year. It is important that website owners pay attention to this and, if their sites are not already optimized for mobile devices (April 21st 2015, the date Google began indexing your site and penalising it for its poor performance on mobile), it's something they need to rectify quickly.
What is the Google Mobile update?
This update is focused solely on giving higher rankings to websites which are optimized for mobile devices (android or iPhone software).
Google's reasoning is that, as more traffic comes from mobile devices, they need to reward or penalise websites that are not mobile compatible. This is a way of encouraging websites to improve their performance.
Why should we be concerned about this update?
Google announced for the first publicly that it will give mobile websites a preference in organic search results. Updates in the past have focused more on mobile site configuration and making sure they are 'viewable' on modern devices. It was that simple.
Google will now use mobile friendliness as a ranking criterion in its search engine results. Sites that have not been fully optimized for mobile platforms may be left behind.
What Can I Do to Ensure That My Website Will Not be Affected by This Mobile Update?
Most websites don't need to worry about this, because many of them have designed their sites to ensure that they can be viewed and optimised for mobile devices. Many people in the industry were aware of the issues with compatibility with mobile devices before this became a ranking criteria. With a large portion of web traffic being generated by mobile users, it was important to have a mobile-friendly website.
The Top 5 Issues That Cause Websites to Not Display Correctly on Mobile Devices
Here are some of the common problems to watch out for in order to keep your site up to date with this new update.
1. Images are not optimized for mobile viewing
2. Site too heavy on JavaScript/CSS code
3. The website loading time is too slow (less than one second for mobile viewing).
4. The text format is not optimized for mobile viewing
5. When the website does not adjust the screen size to different sizes, it is called a mobile-responsive site.
Google has created a "mobile-friendly test" for webmasters who are concerned. Simply visit https://thefinalsmobile.com and put the website address of your site into the URL bar and press analyse for your results to be shown.
Check Mobile Health of My Site
We would recommend that all business use this link to ensure their site has been checked. Our own research has shown that 60% of clients are prepared for the upgrade. This leaves the remaining 40% to fix these problems before the launch.
When will this update be live?
Google's mobile update will begin its global rollout on April 21, 2015. We estimate this roll-out phase will last up to three months, based on the previous update.
