From 21st April, Google will be expanding the use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will have a significant impact in search results and users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimised for their devices.
So much website traffic is now coming from smartphones and tablets, Google is assessing all sites in its index for mobile friendliness and this change will be be pushed into its algorithm on that date.
When determining if a website is mobile friendly, Google bases this on a page by page case and all pages must be mobile friendly. Creating some pages, even the majority of pages, as mobile friendly will not mean your entire site passes the check.
Your site must allow Google to crawl CSS & javascript
If you are blocking elements such as CSS and javascript, your site will not pass Google’s mobile friendly test, even if everything else on the site passes.
Because Google has been pushing responsive design as a way to handle mobile traffic, some have speculated that it will receive a ranking boost over and above other types of mobile optimisation. However, Google says that they only recommend it because it works well for Google, so they believe that solution will work for almost everyone else. Other systems of mobile adaptation will not be treated as second class.
You can find out if your site is ready for this change by using the following tools to see how Googlebot views your pages:
- If you want to test a few pages, you can use the Mobile-Friendly Test.
- If you have a site, you can use your Webmaster Tools account to get a full list of mobile usability issues across your site using the Mobile Usability Report.
To get help with making a mobile-friendly site, check out Google's guide to mobile-friendly sites, or contact us to discuss our responsive web design services.