Google mobile search changes went live today, April 21st, you’ll need to make sure your website is optimised for these devices.

As more and more users view websites on mobile devices, Google wants to make it easier to find relevant, mobile-optimised websites.

To this end, Google is now using “use mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal”.

Starting today, Google search results for mobile users will prioritise sites that offer high-quality information that’s formatted to fit on their devices.

Rolph & Floyd can take your existing site, give it a complete makeover and make it mobile responsive in just a few days.

“This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results,” Google announced on their blog.

It is an obvious step for Google. Sending a mobile user to a site that doesn’t work well on their device makes little sense; it results in frustration, and ultimately, in abandonment of the site for want of a better experience.

As mobile traffic increases month on month, one of the focuses for Google moving forward will be on improving their users experience on mobile.

  • Google considers a page “mobile-friendly” if it does the following:
  • Uses text that is readable without zooming
  • Sizes content to fit the screen, so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
  • Avoids software that isn’t necessarily supported on mobile devices, like Flash
  • Spaces links far enough apart that the correct one can be easily tapped

Take Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see how optimised your website is for mobile viewing. You can test a single page on your site or several webpages and see exactly how Google’s own Googlebot views the pages when determining search results.

If your site is not mobile responsive, now is the time to update it.