In the latest update by Google, it is confirmed that now “mobile-friendliness” feature of the website is going to help a lot in the ranking of any website. From April 21, 2015, if your website is not found mobile friendly then you need to be prepared to see a poor ranking of your website. There are less than 2 months for webmasters to make changes in their website and the impact will be really significant in term of Search Engine Page Results.

Do we need to take it seriously?

Just like the Panda and Humming Bird update, this update is also going to put a deep impact on the performance of websites and therefore should be taken seriously. As per Google, the main idea behind this update is to help users get better search results for their gadgets or devices.

In one of the blog posts,Google wrote, “When it comes to search on mobile devices, users should get the most relevant and timely results, no matter if the information lives on mobile-friendly web pages or apps,” Further it was stated, “As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns. In the past, we’ve made updates to ensure a site is configured properly and view-able on modern devices. We’ve made it easier for users to find mobile-friendly web pages and we’ve introduced App Indexing to surface useful content from apps.”
Google is now all set to execute the expanded ranking signal and even from today onward, they’re making use of the information from indexed apps as a kind of ranking signal for the signed in users who have confirmed that they already have installed the apps. Apps are now going to be used more often for seeing content as they will show better and prominent search results.
In terms of mobile-friendliness, it is important to note that even in the past Google has mentioned about such an algorithm update, however this time it has even attached the date to it.
Last year, Google gave direct hints that it is now working on offering better mobile search results for the benefit of users. Even a mobile friendly label was added in the November to mobile search results for those websites that are going to fulfill the requirements. It was mentioned that experiment is undertaken, taking into use the same criteria that can be used for ranking signal.

Example

https://www.samplewebsite.com/

Mobile-friendly- It is an example of a website that is well suited for mobile devices.
Warnings were being sent last month to the webmasters having non mobile friendly websites by the Google suggesting their ranking may get affected so be prepared. It is not at all surprising that Google is actually going to do this, rather the surprise is the launch date that it has mentioned. Normally, they are not so good in making such strong announcements.

 

Have a look at the webmaster warnings here:

 

As per Google websites should make use of text that is readable to the viewers without zooming. Also, the size should fit to the screen so that users are not required to zoom or scroll horizontally. Moreover, the links must be placed at good distance so as to help users tap them with ease.

 

 

 

Want to know about Google’s Mobile Friendly Test tool?

 

Here’s direct link of Google Mobile Friendly test. You just need to enter URL of your website and Google would analyze it and inform if it has a mobile friendly design.

 

In case the website qualifies the test, then it will share few other resources, including the visibility of your page in the eyes of Googlebot.

In case the URL is unable to clear the test, then you’ll get reasons behind the failure. Once you have the reasons you should immediately work on the same to get them resolved as else your search results may get adversely affected.

 

 

Finally, there’s one more feature added to Google Webmaster Tools and it is ‘added mobile usability tracking. This tool offers an insight on mobile issues in the form of graphs, so as to enable webmsters to see any progress they have made.

 

John Mueller from Google stated, “A mobile-friendly site is one that you can easily read & use on a smartphone, by only having to scroll up or down,”. Further, he said, “Swiping left/right to search for content, zooming to read text and use UI elements, or not being able to see the content at all make a site harder to use for users on mobile phones. To help, the Mobile Usability reports show the following issues: Flash content, missing viewport (a critical meta-tag for mobile pages), tiny fonts, fixed-width viewports, content not sized to viewport, and clickable links/buttons too close to each other.”
“We strongly recommend you take a look at these issues in Webmaster Tools, and think about how they might be resolved; sometimes it’s just a matter of tweaking your site’s template!” he said.
So, pack your bags and start working on making your website mobile friendly.