Google to Penalize Non Mobile-Friendly Sites?

Users are accessing websites on their mobile devices more than ever. Today, Google announced they are tagging sites that are mobile friendly. It’s very likely this change could affect your search engine rankings.

We see these labels as a first step in helping mobile users to have a better mobile web experience. We are also experimenting with using the mobile-friendly criteria as a ranking signal.

Google has created a Mobile-Friendly Test allowing you to see if your website passes the following criteria:

• 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

To make sure that your site meets the mobile-friendly criteria:

• Check your pages with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
• Read Google’s Webmasters Mobile Guide on how to create and improve your mobile site
• See the Mobile usability report in Google Webmaster Tools, which highlights major mobile usability issues across your entire site, not just one page
• If your site is running on a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal you can check out Google’s How-To Guide for third-party software to see some tips on updating to a mobile-friendly template.

Your Site Failed… Now What?

If your site failed the mobile-friendly test,  you should be concerned. Without a mobile-friendly site, your competitors with mobile-friendly sites could rank higher in Google results—especially while browsing on a mobile device. Still, there’s no need to panic. Google has not started using this in their search algorithms. Consider it a warning that you should be prepared.

If you need help making your site mobile-friendly, let’s chat.