Today, when you search google on a mobile device, you will notice the results are accompanied by a Mobile-friendly tag.
If you haven’t heard the news yet, Google is launching a new mobile-friendly search algorithm on April 21st. This new algorithm will actually start looking for this mobile-friendly result which will impacting how websites are ranked in mobile searches.
“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. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.” - Google Webmaster Central Blog
There is no ranking system in place to determine how mobile-friendly your site is -- it’s true or false; yes or no; pass or fail. While your site might already be responsive or optimized for mobile, certain elements of the implementation can still cause your site to fail the mobile-friendly test.
Okay, so you haven’t been following along in your textbook but here are the details you need to know to cram for the test.
How can you check?
Search your site on a mobile device and see if the mobile-friendly tag is displayed next to your site. Like in the example shown above. You can also go over to Google’s mobile-friendly test site and enter your domain: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/. If your site produces a fail here, you will be provided with some feedback that will help you determine what needs to be updated.
Common culprits
Link spacing: On touch devices we don’t have the luxury of a precise mouse pointer -- we have our finger tips on a very small screen. This makes links that are close together hard to interact with. Text is too small: If text on your website requires users to zoom in, you will be penalized for this because it is considered a bad browsing experience. Content is wider than the screen: This means that a user would have to scroll to the right so see the full website. This one usually happens when a website is not mobile-friendly at all. However, sometimes certain elements can force your layout off screen -- for instance, images with hard coded pixel widths. All pages are individually analyzed: This new algorithm will analyze each individual page on your site. While your site may mostly be responsive, there could be certain pages that are causing issues.
We have helped many clients through responsive resigns or mobile optimizations. Give us a call if you are interested in discussing the next steps - 1-877-866-5423