Google boosts mobile-friendly web pages
Google helps users to choose mobile-friendly sites
On Tuesday, 2. December, Google has announced that it`s plan to implement some new tools that will keep all webmasters motivated to make more mobile friendly user experience.
Moreover, they announced that it is experimenting with certain criteria in their ranking algorithms for better user experience via mobile phone. Websites that providing a great mobile experience will get better rank on Google.
With this changes, web developers will create the best websites imaginable for a smaller screen and take advantage of a good SEO optimization.
How does it affect your website?
In a post released on Tuesday, Google wrote that all pages that have earned a “mobile friendly” label will get a boost in results through a ranking algorithm.
It is known that Google has always been focused on making their products as friendly as possible to its users. This is the main reason why they in June 2013 began penalizing pages that provide a bad mobile user experience and why they now focused on boosting the rank of sites that are “mobile friendly”. In order to announce this surprise, last month Google was testing out mobile friendly labels next to website links in search results to inform users which website were mobile friendly and which pages were not.
What criteria should be considered for mobile friendly pages?
Google has released a mobile friendly test that will show you is your web site mobile friendly or not. You can solve this Mobile-Friendly Test to determine whether or not your website is up to Google´s standards. You can also use the mobile usability report within Google Webmaster Tools.
With these two tools you will likely determine is your website good for a mobile search ranking promotion or demotion.
Here is some advices how to get “mobile friendly” label:
- Use fonts and text that scale for easy reading on mobile devices
- Avoid using software that is not common for mobile devices – please do not make website in Adobe Flash and do not use it on your website at all
- Create a responsive web design which will adjust to the device´s screen size
- Add big buttons that are well spaced between one another so that those with big fingers can easily click
- Make sure content flows in this viewport so that users don´t have to pinch the screen or scroll horizontally in order to see the entire page
When will these criteria begin to apply?
It is not known when the new order will be in effect, but is currently conducting A/B tests above mentioned criteria involving thousands of users. During this testing some users will see one version, while other users will see another version. These two results are compared against each other to see which one is better. It is assumed that the new order will be released with “mobile friendly” labels that were tested last month.
This changes will allow developers to create mobile friendly websites so they don´t miss out on all the mobile traffic.
Responsive web design and search engine optimization
Responsive web design and search engine optimization
Why is responsive web design important to your SEO? How does it help maintain good ranking in search results?
What is a responsive web site?
What is a responsive web site?
What are the advantages? Are there any disadvantages? Is it worth upgrading the existing web site into responsive one? The answers to these questions are here.
Web sites for mobile devices
Web sites for mobile devices
Smartphones are gaining in popularity every day, so you should be aware of how these devices work and create designs that work well for them.
