In a Q&A session on Google+, Mary and Michael from Google’s webmaster relations team revealed more information about Google’s new mobile ranking algorithm.
What is Google’s new mobile algorithm?
Google is going to introduce an addition to the ranking algorithm that influences the position of your web pages in Google’s mobile search results.
The change only affects the rankings that your web pages have if the user searches on a mobile phone. The regular search results are not affected by the new algorithm.
What did Google say in the Q&A session?
- Google’s mobile ranking algorithm will start rolling out on 21 April 2015. The global rollout will take a few days.
- A web page is either mobile-friendly or not. It’s not possible that a web page is a bit mobile-friendly.
- The mobile testing tool (see below) can show different results than Google Webmaster Tools (which can be delayed based on crawl-time).
- The mobile ranking algorithm works on a page-by-page basis.
How to check if your website is mobile-friendly
It is important to make sure that your web pages are mobile-friendly. Fortunately, Google has a tool for this that is available here. Just enter the URL of your website and click the “Analyze” button.
If your website fails the test then you have to adjust the design of your web pages. Instead of creating a separate website for mobile devices, you could use responsive design for your web pages. If you use WordPress, there are many themes that support responsive design.
Stay Connected