BNN Update: Google’s Recent Mobile Algorithm Announcement on The Booster Seat Season 2 Episode 7

Andrew Eagar
. March 31, 2015

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Hey there Boosters and welcome to the Boostability News Network. I am Andrew Eagar and here are your top stories from the month of March.

Our top story has to do with Google’s recent mobile algorithm announcement. Here is what you need to know.

Google announced that having a “mobile friendly” website will be a factor in mobile ranking results starting April 21. This announcement, as you know, set the SEO world in commotion. The mobile algorithm change is set to run on April 21, but will likely roll out worldwide over the course of that entire week.

Let’s break this announcement down into it’s most basic form. Let’s first talk about this “April 21” date. It isn’t very often that Google announces an update BEFORE that update happens. I think Google is trying to give as many webmasters as possible the opportunity to change their websites to be mobile-friendly before the update. I don’t think they are doing this out of the kindness of their hearts however. No, they aren’t. If you think about it, Google’s goal is to display the best results in their Search Engine. What better way to reach that goal than to scare webmasters into making these changes.

Now, let’s talk about what “Mobile-Friendly” means. A “Mobile-Friendly” status is assigned to those websites that reach the standards that Google has set forth to be mobile-friendly. For the most part, Google is looking for a mobile site design that can be easily navigated through mobile searches.

This algorithm Google is launching works on a page to page basis. This means that you can have some pages that are mobile-friendly and other pages that are not. If you want to know if you site is mobile friendly, simply go to Google and type “mobile-friendly test” and click on the first organic result.

On this note, I think it is important to recognize that there aren’t any “degrees” of mobile friendliness. You are either mobile friendly or you are not.

Now, why should you, as a website owner, care about mobile searches? Mobile is becoming a big deal in the industry with more and more searches on Google being mobile. Each year more users use their mobile devices to search on Google. Making your website mobile friendly is a great way to adapt to the online changes.

Well, that’s it for our news segment. Stay Cool!

Tags:Googe updates

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Andrew Eagar

17 Comments

Jeremy Lindstrom, March 31, 2015 @ 8:23 am

Google may not have announced its update ahead of time out of the kindness of its Silicon heart, but announcing the change in order to “scare” webmasters is a bit extreme. Google is interested in returning the best search results and, as you said, its mobile algorithm update will be most successful if most websites optimize for mobile.

But Google doesn’t have to scare anyone into optimizing their websites–we optimize on our own because we know it’s a wise thing to do. Learning and implementing Google’s algorithm is a multi-million dollar industry because people see profit in website optimization, not because they are scared of Google.
M Andrew Eagar, March 31, 2015 @ 9:32 am

Great thought Jeremy. The word “scare” might be a bit extreme, but I think that is what Google is doing. Yes, they do want the best results in their Search Engine, and in order to do that, they will “motivate” webmasters to change by mentioning they will get penalized if they don’t. I agree, I think “scare” might be a bit extreme, I think the most appropriate is “motivate”. By announcing this algorithm, Google is motivating webmasters to optimize the site to be mobile friendly.
Andrew Williams, March 31, 2015 @ 12:24 pm

This could be a devastating update for a lot of websites that are not mobile friendly. If they are getting more than have of there traffic from mobile users and then lose those mobile rankings they could lose half of the traffic to their site which could have a big impact on conversions and sales.
Maria Williams, March 31, 2015 @ 3:05 pm

This is really scary but at the same time it’s well appreciate that Google is letting us know that a new update is going to be release in a couple of weeks. Also I tried to take the Quiz and for some reason is looks kind of strange. It’s hard to answer the right questions.
Lindsey Potter, March 31, 2015 @ 4:08 pm

What are some of Google’s specific requirements for being a “Mobile-Friendly” website?
Caz*, March 31, 2015 @ 5:33 pm

That’s a great question I think @mandreweagar:disqus can shed even more light on. However, I can say they have a pretty in depth view where they require overall “readability” that is measured by font sizing, how close together you have buttons or links when viewed on a mobile screen, and the resizing of images for mobile viewing.

If your navigation smooshes down to being so close together that someone can, as they say, “fat finger” a click and go to the wrong place – Google marks the page as not mobile friendly.

Also, one thing to note is that while it might look great on your phone — Google considers the OLDEST mobile device still heavily being used. So maybe the iPhone or Nexus 6 shows the web page perfectly, but does the Android 2.3 device render the mobile optimization well? If it doesn’t, then it is marked as not mobile friendly.

It is important to use rendering tools and test on a variety of your own devices when designing every element of a webpage.
Kelly Shelton, April 2, 2015 @ 10:01 am

Nice to see Google announce the algorithm in advance. Mobile search is taking over desktop search and who knows if in the future the average consumer will have a desktop or laptop at home. It really is time to embrace mobile search or you will be left behind.
Sarah Jane Dayley, April 2, 2015 @ 10:53 am

Sometimes when I’m searching a site on my phone, I don’t like the mobile version and will use the option to “view full site” in order to see it the same way I would on my computer. Is this going to change that?
Josh, April 2, 2015 @ 11:17 am

Thanks for this heads-up! I checked out both of my sites, and fortunately I am already mobile friendly according to the gospel of Google.
M Andrew Eagar, April 2, 2015 @ 2:05 pm

That’s excellent news!
M Andrew Eagar, April 2, 2015 @ 2:05 pm

I don’t think it will change for you. I think you will still have the option to change to desktop if you need.
M Andrew Eagar, April 2, 2015 @ 2:06 pm

Exactly. Digital marketing is changing and in many cases has changed to adapt to the mobile world. It is quite exciting to see what changes lie in store for digital marketers.
Josh, April 2, 2015 @ 2:54 pm

I’m right there with you, Sarah. I do that on most sites I visit via a mobile device.
TheChocolateOpal®, April 3, 2015 @ 8:53 am

My site is mobile friendly, also. “Hallelujah!”
Reliable Carpet & Upholstery C, April 3, 2015 @ 10:30 am

Just to add some perspective, I keep extremely close tabs on the devices used by those who access our website. We have been fully mobile-friendly for quite some time, and I’ve seen a definite positive shift in our numbers. Nevertheless, for March 2015, Android, Blackberry, iPhone and Samsung (plus a few others) total 10.5% of our hits, and iPad accounts for 5.8% of our hits. This may or may not be typical in your area or for your customers, but it’s something to throw into the mix as food for thought.
Jamison Michael Furr, April 3, 2015 @ 11:33 am

Thanks for the input and real life numbers – that adds some good context to the conversation.
Ammon Mailo, April 3, 2015 @ 2:41 pm

I’m glad there’s a quick and easy way to find out if a website is mobile-friendly or not by using the “mobile-friendly test” tool. It takes the whole guess-work out of equation.