Be ‘Mobile-Friendly’ Or Face The Consequences
Google is at it again – keeping webmasters on their toes as they compete for the coveted highest ranking on search engine results pages.
After years of warning webmasters to prepare themselves for a mobile-centric transition, the day is finally upon us. On April 21st, Google will be launching a brand new ranking algorithm that will begin penalizing websites if they do not meet “mobile-friendly” criteria.
Unlike most algorithm updates, this one came with a warning directly from Google:
“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.”
With phrases like “significant impact” being thrown around, now is the time to adapt your website to mobile to stay relevant in Google’s results or risk experiencing a significant drop in your current positioning.
How To Prepare
Details about the launch have slowly been surfacing through Q&A sessions with Google, helping webmasters prepare themselves for the transition to the best of their ability.
- The algorithm will be launched on April 21st, but will take a few days to a week to be working globally.
- There are no degrees of mobile-friendliness. Your website is either mobile-friendly or it’s not.
- The mobile-friendly criteria is being judged on a page-by-page basis – not sitewide.
- Googlebot must be able to crawl CSS & JavaScript to pass as mobile-friendly.
- Tablets will not be affected by the algorithm update.
Are You Mobile-Friendly?
To check that your web pages are being detected correctly, look for the “mobile-friendly label” in your mobile search results. Search for your website on a mobile device and locate the gray mobile-friendly label listed in the description area. If the label is identified, Google is detecting your website as mobile-friendly.
According to Google’s guidelines, a page will display the label if it meets the following criteria as detected by Googlebot:
- Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
- Uses text that is readable without zooming
- Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
- Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped
If the label does not appear, Google also offers a mobile-friendly test that will alert webmasters if their websites are not meeting the requirements.
How Demosphere Can Help
Don’t let the time you spent producing great content for your website go to waste.Providing a mobile-friendly site is essential when attempting to engage with users on-the-go in today’s mobile world.
Demosphere’s WebWriter® System seamlessly converts all websites into a mobile-friendly display when viewed on mobile devices. Demosphere users are able to enjoy their information on-the-go without ever having to zoom or scroll – and already meet the new algorithm criteria!
For any questions regarding the mobile capabilities of your Demosphere website, please contact our Support Team.
