by samHow Google have implemented changes to mobile searches and how it could affect your business
From the 18th November 2014, you may have noticed a small addition to Google’s search results. Designed at improving the experience of mobile users, a tag appears next to the Meta description informing the user if the site is “mobile-friendly”.
Google also added a new addition to Webmaster Tools in October 2014 to enable webmasters to gather information on how their websites are performing on mobiles.
In January 2015, rumours were rife of a new Google search algorithm sparked by Google’s John Muller comments: “It was neither Google’s Panda nor their Penguin causing the fluctuations in rankings”… alluding to the expected algorithm update.
During 2014, Google had made a point of suggesting websites should be mobile friendly. If you chose not to adhere to Google’s recommendations, then you may have already observed the negative affect on your Google rankings. The implications of not having a mobile friendly website will not have an impact on your desktop ranking, but could cause your mobile rankings to drop against competitors, and in some cases, your ranking may disappear altogether causing a negative effect on traffic and ultimately sales!
With almost sixty percent of us now using our mobiles to search for websites at some time of the day, it’s little wonder Google prioritised the improvement of the mobile users experience.
Google provide a mobile-friendly test which allows you to see how well your website performs almost instantly.
Google have also confirmed it is making two more major changes to its search algorithm for ranking mobile search results. Hmm, I wonder what they could be?! Google have already started to rank mobile apps contributing in App Indexing for signed up users better in the mobile search results.
So, the evidence points to maximising your mobile friendly opportunity. As suggested earlier, validate your website with Google’s mobile friendly test tool. It’s also advisable to review site resources, for example: images, CSS, JS to ensure they are also crawlable.
It is worth taking into consideration that you can also look at the Google Webmaster Tools mobile usability report, which will indicate if there is any mobile usability issues, for example: use of Flash, incorrectly sized content, and touch elements that are too close together.
If you wish to talk to one of our team regarding your digital marketing, then get in touch today.
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