Is your website/blog mobile friendly? If not, here is a big news for you that will make you start making changes on your site in coming days.
Google announced, mobile friendly site is an official ranking factor and from 21st April 2015, it will be a ranking signal. This news came as no surprise because mobile usage is increasing day by day, and having a mobile optimised site gives a better user experience when your site is access via smartphone or smaller screen devices. According to one report. by 2017 mobile phone users are likely to reach 5.13 billion users globally.
How to check mobile usability issues using Google Webmaster tool?
In the official announcement over here, Google mentioned that mobile-friendliness is now an official search engine ranking factor. On 21st April this ranking signal will impact search results which will affect all languages worldwide and get ready to see a significant search engine changes in coming days.
If your website/blog is not mobile-friendly, you still have a chance to work on your site and offer a mobile friendly version of site. WordPress blogger can easily implement mobile friendly version of their site with the help of Jetpack plugin or WP Touch plugin.
If you want to retain the branding of your blog, I would recommend you to offer a mobile specific design of your site. (Check www.shoutmeloud.com on your smartphone browser to understand what I'm talking about).
For now, you can check your mobile friendliness using this official tool by Google.
If your website is mobile friendly, you should check mobile usability issues across your site using Google Webmaster tool.
Clicking on any usability error will show you the pages on your website with that error. This is a good way to start looking for usability issues on your mobile friendly sites.
Along with mobile site getting higher ranking, Google also announced about the app indexing and showing content from the app to the users. This ranking factor is already live and in this, signed-in users will see results from the apps they have installed on their device. Provided, developer have implemented app indexing for the app.
If you are a blogger or an Android app developer, make sure you implement app indexing in your app. You can find details here to implement app indexing in your Android app. If you already have your blog app in Google play store, follow instructions here to verify your site for your app.
Note: ShoutMeLoud Android app is currently not deep-indexing enabled, and I will be rolling out an updated version of the app with the app indexing support. Also new app will have comment feature enabled.
It was not surprise or brainer that mobile friendly site is a need of time. Depending upon platform you are using, you should implement a solution to serve mobile friendly site. Don't just limit to offer mobile friendly site and do consider other factors such as speed, conversion and monetisation.
Since mobile usage is increasing every-day, you should ensure that your mobile version of site also adds revenue stream in your pocket. If you are a blogger, I recommend you to also create an Android app for your blog, as now search engine results will be different for people who have mobile app installed from your competitor or other sites. Sooner you start, you will have an extra edge over others. You can take advantage of ShoutMeLoud service to get an android app for your blog.
So what are your plans to tackle upcoming mobile friendliness search engine ranking factor? Are you already offering mobile friendly site or it's in your to-do list. If you are blogging on WordPress platform, I would love to know what solution are you taking to offer mobile version of your site?
I didn't Expect That Google Would give this much importance to Mobile Friendly sites.Until Now I didn't consider about Creating Mobile Friendly sites and Creating Mobile Apps for my site. After Reading This Article Better I will try to make my more mobile friendly as possible .
I am agree with you these days mobile searches plays a vital role in ranking. Day by dat smartphone are increasing that day is not far when mobile search will take over desktop search. Thank for news.
My site is "mobile friendly". That's what I get for choosing a responsive theme. Although at that time I didn't know what "responsive" means; it was just a cool buzzword.
Indeed we can't ignore the mobile version of our website or the app version since it has been growing drastically. Thank you for the helpful and informational post Harsh.
Make our site mobile friendly is also an important factor for search engine ranking.
It was first time, i got idea about mobile friendliness testing tool launched by Google.
Special thanks for sharing WP touch plugin to make wp site mobile friendly.
Hey, I use a responsive theme in WordPress!! Is it enough for mobile friendly? Any way to check whether my site mobile friendly or not?
I have more mobile readers, Im new to blogging and I have never gave it a thought to make my blog more mobile friendly. I will sure implement your method on my blog, Thank you or sharing such an important ranking factor harsh agarwal.
Nice Post, Now i will make my site responsive so that I can gain more traffic. What about you harsh, is your app driving you good traffic?
Hey Harsh, thanks for this post. Is there any way I can make a static HTML website mobile friendly?
Thanks for this useful Information Regarding Mobile Friendly Blog. Can you provide some Free Mobile Friendly Responsive Themes for WordPress.
I am surprised Google announced the day they will implement a new algorithm. This goes to show a huge number of sites are still not mobile friendly, thus the need to 'warn' webmaster ahead of implementation.
anyway, it is about time mobile seo is part of the ranking factor.
My site was ranking on page one, I got a message from Google that I should improve the mobile accessibility of my site but i just ignored it, now I am nowhere near the first page! That proves how important it is to have a mobile friendly site.
Very useful post, also if some one trying to make money through AdSense its very much needed these days because AdSense likes multiscreen optimized website. Thanks for sharing such informative post.
I've seen "mobile-friendly" label on search listings a month back. And now Google officially announced Mobile friendliness as a ranking factor. So it's mandatory to have mobile-friendly site.
I am using a responsive theme and Google Mobile Friendly-Friendly Test shows my site is mobile-friendly. But I am not using any plugin to make a mobile version of my site, Is responsive design enough for mobile friendliness?
However, thanks for sharing this useful post. Special thanks for letting me know about the Mobile Usability feature on GWT.
I knew this and i had installed a responsive theme in my blog. I'm relieved I did it back then before i got into trouble.
With the help of your ebook, I recently managed to creat the initial phases of my blog.. I checked the mobile friendliness with the link u mentioned.. And my blog shows as compatible on that..
However when i try to open the blog on mobile, it doesn't load.
Thanks for another great and informative article… I guess using Responsive theme would increase the ranking…What do you think ?
It's really important to make website mobile friendly. After the 2016, AMP arrived and Google started giving priority to mobile friendly sites. Smart phone users are increasing. It's a good post to check the mobile usability and fix it, Thanks.