In 2015 Google started using mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal for users completing mobile searches. They gave a rare warning when they announced the mobile-friendly ranking update, saying that they expected it to have a “significant impact” on the mobile search results.
While the so called ‘mobilegeddon’ update never had the impact many had predicted, it did signal the beginning of the end for non-mobile friendly websites.
A year on and Google has announced that at the beginning of May 2016 they will start rolling out an update to mobile search results that will increase the effect of the ranking signal.
Google has made some free tools available which include a Webmasters Mobile Guide on creating and then improving your mobile site and also a resource for checking commonly used software such as WordPress.
The aim of the updates are to help users find more relevant and mobile-friendly content when searching on a mobile device.
The more suitable content is to users and the easier you make it for users to interact with content on your website, the higher the likelihood of achieving a conversion.
The updates will start from May and Google has not given a timescale for the roll out. The update will not cause non-mobile friendly websites to disappear fro the search results but it is another step towards Googles aim of delivering the most reliant content possible to users on mobile devices, which means demoting non-mobile friendly content from searches completed on mobile devices.
