Looking at the ever-rising popularity of smartphones and tablets, Google announced the new web property- ‘mobile- friendly’ through the Webmaster Central Blog. With the new update, Mobilegeddon Google attempts to favor the websites, which works ideally on all your mobile devices. Here is a short insight of the changes it would bring to the world of digital marketing:
Q: Will this update impact the desktop searchers? What about tablet searches?
A: Well, it’s good to know that it will not affect either of the; thus, both the desktop and tablet rankings have a safe corner. However, it will boost the ranking on mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results.
Q: How to check for a mobile friendly website?
A: While you can do this through a number of ways, the best solution is to look for the mobile friendly label in the mobile search results. You can also opt for Mobile-Friendly Test. Also, in Google Webmaster Tools, the Mobile usability report will provide you complete report of your site.
Q: Is it the first mobile ranking algorithm? Is it real?
A: Yes, it run in real time and it is not the first update. Back in 2013, there was an update made, which was specific to the issues accessing a mobile site.
Q: Is the mobile friendly algorithm site-wide or on a web page by web page basis?
Q: How much time Google takes to implement changes made to a website and is the new algorithm site-wide or works on a page by page base?
A: The new algorithm runs in real time and Google will crawl your web pages to check for mobile friendly website. Thus, the process can take few hours to show results. It may extend up to 72-hours at times.
Secondly, it works on a page by page basis. Therefore, if your site consist of few mobile friendly pages, it will gain some benefits.
Q: Will this new algorithm affect the mobile rankings from the first day of its launch? If yes, what all can happen to a non-mobile site?
A: It will take few weeks for the algorithm to roll out. Thus, the changes will appear later and even after its roll out, the impact is unknown yet. As per the statement, the changes will be more dominant to Panda and Penguin.
Q: Will the site speed put some negative impact and will my website delist from Searches, if I don’t go mobile friendly?
A: For both the questions, answer is “NO”!
Q: Is it true that large brands will benefit, even if they are not mobile friendly? What if I have a right solution, but not a big name nor mobile-friendly?
A: For non- mobile friendly, large brands, Google’s mobile results will show it on the first position. Thus, relevancy is more important. So, in the other case (small brands), it might show you regardless if you’re not mobile friendly. In all, even if it’s not mobile friendly, the high-quality content could rank well.
Q: What precaution are to be taken, while going for mobile SEO?
A: You can check the Google published document. It specifies the top seven mistakes webmasters commit usually.
Q: Is there a need to have a special mobile sitemap file?
A: Not necessary.
Q: How will Mobilegeddon affect AdWords ads?
A: As AdWords have their own mobile factors, therefore, no changes will be seen.
In all, with this update, Google tends to change the order in which the websites are ranked, when users look for something in their smartphones. This major update to the mobile search algorithm seems to be simple, yet it will prove highly beneficial to the mobile viewing crowd!