Saturday, March 21, 2015

SEO: Google Revamping Search Results Effective April 21, 2015

Google is saying “users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices,” from their update being launched in April, 2015.

While Google has announced this search engine software update early; it hasn’t exactly been spilling the beans with all the details.

The big takeaway from this early notice about the launch date is that if your site is not mobile-friendly, get to work now on it. If 50% of your traffic from Google comes from mobile devices, it sounds like if you are not mobile-friendly that virtually all of that traffic from mobile is at huge risk.

Preparing for the Update

Google has been prepping webmasters understand mobile computing. Thanks to the announcement of the Mobile Search update, many webmasters now have a compelling reason to take action. If you find yourself scrambling to be mobile-friendly and can’t decide between a dedicated mobile or responsive design, it makes sense to weigh the pros and cons of each before making a decision.

This upcoming mobile-friendly ranking algorithm that will launch on April 21st will have more of an impact on Google’s search results than the Google Panda update and the Google Penguin update did.

The best way to ensure a mobile-friendly website is with a responsive design.  A responsive design means the website will adjust to fit any size screen—whether it's a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone—without sacrificing content. The content is simply reformatted and reorganized to fit neatly within the screen of your device. Rather than creating a totally separate mobile site, a responsive design keeps everything on one website under a single domain. That means less risk of redirect errors and less upkeep for you.

If your website has a responsive design, you are primed and ready for the new Google update!

How is Google Identifying Poor Mobile User Experience?

You may or may not have noticed the new “Mobile-Friendly” annotation within mobile search results.  This is a clear indicator as to whether Google sees your website as having a sufficient user experience for users who arrive from a mobile device.  So who characterizes a “sufficient user experience”?  Google, of course!

Is your web site or blog mobile friendly? Google is providing that test site to find out if you are in compliance with their tech specs for this latest search engine update.

If you have a question use my contact form.

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