Google Update Giving Mobile Friendly Websites More Ranking

How Much Traffic Will You Lose From The Upcoming Mobile Algorithm Change

Google announced that it will be releasing an update on April 21st: “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.”

Go Mobile or Lose Traffic

Google intends to reward mobile-friendly websites with better rankings in mobile search. Likewise, websites that are not mobile-friendly may very well experience a dramatic decline in mobile rankings. Can your business afford to loose that traffic?

Use our Mobile Phone Website Emulator to check whether your website is mobile optimised.

Google Webmaster Tools : Fix Mobile Usability

Some of you may even have received emails from Google Webmaster Tools about mobile usability issues – see the image below:

Goolge’s Gary Illyes has shared some few details about what Google will be looking for:

• Responsive design does not have a ranking benefit
• Googlebot must be allowed to crawl CSS & JavaScript to pass the “mobile-friendly” test
• Mobile friendliness is determined at the page level – not sitewide
• Tablets will not be affected by this update
• Google is currently working on a dedicated mobile index

Mobile Website : The Options

There are generally two options that you have when you want a mobile friendly website:

1. A dedicated Mobile Website
2. a Responsive Website

Which Option is Best?

So which type of website is best? Below are the highlights of both types of sites:

Pros of Dedicated Mobile Sites:

• Can be customised for mobile users
• Should be the most mobile-friendly version of a site
• Easier and cheaper to design

Cons of Mobile Sites:

• Recurring (monthly) maintenance
• Higher costs for updating the content of multiple websites
• May need to be reworked to meet future browsers

Pros of Responsive Web Design:

• Highly flexible – one responsive website works on all devices, so only one site has to be created and maintained
• This is Google’s recommended configuration
• Can be a better return on investment since most responsive sites won’t need much future maintenance to comply with new browsers

Cons of Responsive Web Design:

• More expensive upfront cost
• Doesn’t convert as well

Need a Mobile Friendly Website?

Check out our Mobile Website Design page or contact Blue Square Management today on 01689 602 248 or email us.

Original article: here