This week, Google updated their search algorithm, as announced in a blog post recently, to expand their use of “mobile-readiness” as a search ranking, and that “it will significantly impact our search results”. This is definitely a good thing for smartphone and tablet users trying to navigate their way around the web, what it means for businesses is that they better get their mobile act together or they’ll end up in search purgatory a.k.a Google’s page 2.
If you aren’t sure what qualifies as “mobile-friendly”, have you ever found yourself on a site with your smartphone and you had to do the 2-finger pinch zoom to read what was there, then when you found a link you wanted to take it was so small that you had to try multiple times to push it, and by the time you finally hit the link your pounding rapidly on your screen only to realize you hit the wrong one…. Yeah, that’s not very mobile-friendly now is it? As Google said,
This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.
They are just trying to give users the best experience they can get on the web so they’ll keep coming back. Shouldn’t we do the same?
Google was kind enough to build us a tool you can use to see if your site is up to par, visit it here and punch in your URL to see if you pass the test. If not, give us a call and we can help get your site mobile-ready so you stay on the top.
Ben Figueiredo