In search engine news, it has been quite an exciting time. To be honest, it is always exiting when Google changes something about their search engine. We have had updates such as Panda and Penguin. But, I think the next update is going to be the largest update that will impact the most amount of websites. What Google have announced is that websites that do not have mobile friendly versions will be ranked lower on mobile search than the websites with mobile friendly versions of their website. Here is everything you need to know about the update.
When will the update roll out?
Based on current information and previous experience with Google search engine updates, you should expect to see the update no time soon. It will take weeks for the update to fully roll out, since this is one of the largest updates to Google’s mobile search engine. Therefore, expect around 2-3 weeks for the update to come out.
What will this mean for websites?
This will have a huge impact to the majority of websites since mobile search is being used more and more by phones, tablets and other portable devices.
If you have a website that is mobile friendly (has a version of the website adapted for mobile devices), then you are fine. In actual fact, you might see your website gaining more traffic on average in the next few weeks.
If you have a website that is not mobile friendly, then I will admit that you are in trouble. You can expect the ranking of your website to decrease on Google’s mobile search engine even if your content is good.
This is the main problem. Even if you have the best content on the internet, if Google sees that your website is not mobile friendly, you will suffer badly. Your ranking will decrease on mobile search engines decreasing the amount of organic traffic to your website.
What should you do?
If you have a mobile friendly version, then you should be fine and not need to worry. If you have not got a mobile friendly of your website, get one now! Google have not released the update yet so there is still time to make a mobile friendly version of your website: even if it is the most basic of mobile theming.
You can find out if your website is already adapted for mobile devices by clicking on the first result when Googling, ‘mobile friendly check’. This is a website which helps you determine whether your website is already mobile friendly or not.
It is important for those in trouble to act now. There are still a few weeks before the full update rolls out so this is plenty of time to create a mobile version of your website, so that you will not lose any traffic to this update.
