There are hints but not clear indications from Google that mobile friendly websites may be ranked higher than older style websites. When you search Google using a mobile device, sites that are deemed mobile-friendly are currently accompanied by the words “Mobile-friendly” in grey. The jury is still out on what Google is looking for and what the search company will do with the information gathered but it’s likely that sites that are not mobile-friendly may end up being displayed lower in search results.
Google’s main concern is delivering websites that are relevant to the users’ keywords but will also provide a good user experience. There has been a major growth in the use of mobiles and tablets and websites that are not optimised for these devices (responsive web designs) will provide an inferior experience and may be penalised in their search engine rankings.
With this in mind, Google has recently launched a new tool for checking if a website is mobile friendly. Simply go to the website, enter your URL and check the response which will be ‘Awesome! This page is mobile friendly’ if it passes:
If your website fails the test, then you get this sort of message:
If your website fails the test, it’s not the end of the world. However you should also review the feedback and check for yourself on different mobile devices. We have tried the test with a number of different websites and we did get a couple of anomalous results with some websites that we know are responsive and load quickly for mobiles. If you know that your website is not mobile-friendly then you should start planning now to convert to this type of website as users are often using multiple devices to search the Internet, view content and buy online.
Go here to enter your URL: Google mobile friendly test site
