4 things you need to know about Google’s Mobile Friendly Update
It’s a fact, the new Google Mobile Friendly Update comes the 21st of April. As marketers, we are all looking forward to find out how the update will affect our rankings in Google and what’s the best way to be ready for it. First of all, let’s try to identify what exactly the update does:
Responsive design and fast loading speed, the new MUST HAVE
We all have seen the last changes on apps, Google Play, in the mobile SERPs and all related to mobile. Actually all this changes have been a pre-launch, so it’s obvious Google wants 100% mobile optimized content in a short term. It’s quite logical from Google perspective, considering the mobile audience grows every month and the numbers in the future are massive enough to be considered the “only traffic” to work on.
So what Google wants? Easy, websites 100% responsive, with good UX, fast to load architectures, crawl apps in a deeper way… in summary, go mobile! So now the question is simple: ¿How do I know if my website is mobile friendly?
Is my site mobile friendly for Google?
This is the easy part. There are two ways to check if your Website is mobile friendly for Google or not. Just go here and do the mobile-friendly test and check this website to analyze the load speed and UX rating for mobile and desktop. Once you do the test, Google will score your site from 0 to 100, and the minimum grade to be considered good enough for Google is 80, which means a “green light”. So: You need to get a FULL GREEN, to be sure you won’t be affected by the new Google update.
If my website is not mobile-friendly… Will my desktop ranking be affected?
The more we read about this, the more it seems that the SERPs in desktop won’t be affected. But I personally believe we are considering only a part of the whole update, since the load speed is going to be a main parameter to assign a position in the SERPs. Our guess is mobile is here to stay, and every time Google changes its algorithm and the way to index or parse the information, these changes affect the SERPs. To be honest, I don’t think your rankings in desktop will get much better if Google bets on mobile and you don’t have a responsive version or your website.
Our advice: hurry and do any changes needed to go mobile asap
Basically, before the 21st, check your website, run the test, and do the changes you have to do to get a “green light” in responsiveness, UX and load speed values. That’s what Google wants so let’s go for it. The more we do to not having a traumatic situation the 21st, the better. Keep in mind the main goal of all the updates: “be ready for it” and “keep my rankings safe”.
This might look like trouble, but it is actually a great opportunity to move faster than anyone else and improve your visibility at Google. Need help? Count on us!
Digital Marketing Consultant