Not Mobile Optimized? Prepare for Obscurity: Google Increasing Use of Mobile Friendliness in Ranking Signals

Google is going to increase the use of mobile friendliness in its rankings for all searches conducted on  mobile devices beginning on April 21, 2015 said Google’s Matt Cutts in a recent Tweet

The post goes on to say that the uptick in using mobile friendliness will have “significant impact on our search results”.

The message between the lines is, if your site is not optimized for a mobile experience, you are not making the first results page. And we all know if you are not on page one, you might as not even be there at all.

Good move by Google.  By providing a higher ranking to mobile optimized sites, Google users will have a better experience and be more likely to become repeat users.

After speaking with industry experts if you’re not mobile optimized, you don’t need to hit the panic button just yet.  The suspicion is that Google will ease this in over an (unspecified) period to time so as to not to immediately disrupt their business model.  However it is coming and will be meaningful. Make sure to work on this as soon as possible.

Google’s Webmaster Central Blog does provide information and developer tools on how to make your site mobile friendly.  One really helpful and also cool tool is their “Mobile Friendly Test” tool.  Just enter a site’s URL and within a few seconds Google will analyze and score the site for mobile friendliness. 

Proud to say AllThingsInteractive.com passed Google's Mobile Friendly test with flying colors

This a great benefit to anyone using Google search on a mobile device.  If you have landed on a page not optimized for a mobile experience you know the frustration that leads to.  It goes double when you are in a “mobile experience” trying to find out information (nearest coffee shop, movie schedule etc) while out and about.

You have been warned.  Be mobile friendly by April 21, 2015 or be prepared to lose all of your mobile traffic from Google Search.

This a great benefit to anyone using Google search on a mobile device.  If you have landed on a page not optimized for a mobile experience you know the frustration that leads to.  It goes double when you are in a “mobile experience” trying to find out information (nearest coffee shop, movie schedule etc) while out and about.

You have been warned.  Be mobile friendly by April 21, 2015 or be prepared to lose all of your mobile traffic from Google Search.

n.b. Google Analytics draws a distinction between “mobile” and “tablet” with the former being cell phones and the later tablet devices.  Google has not made any distinctions here but exerts are saying this will apply to a “on the go” devices.