Repost: Is your website mobile friendly?

This is a post from a little while ago but we’ve had a few questions from clients so we thought it would be a good idea to repost and expand on what Google’s mobile friendly update means for your website.

On April 21, 2015 Google updated its search algorithm to favour websites that function well on mobile devices.

So how could this affect your website? If your website is mobile friendly, then Google will rank it significantly higher than non-mobile friendly websites in its mobile search results. To be clear, this promoted ranking is only used when your website is searched by someone that is using a mobile device, it doesn’t apply to search results from people using tablets or desktop computers.

If your website isn’t configured for phone or tablet, it doesn’t mean that your site will no longer appear in mobile search results. Google uses many signals to determine where your site shows up in its mobile search results, however the mobile friendly signal is an important one. You don’t want to risk losing visitors to competitors because your website isn’t mobile friendly.

Some people might view this as Google imposing its authority/control on the content you see, but I think this should be looked at as a necessary upgrade. As user patterns shift and the majority of people surf the web from their mobile devices, Google is making it easier for users to get relevant and viewable content on the devices they prefer to use.

If you’re not sure whether your site is mobile friendly or not, Google has a simple test you can try here and a detailed list of guidelines and criteria you can refer to. They also have a FAQ page that gives a fairly detailed breakdown of how the upgrade functions.