As the day of April 21, 2015 rolls closer, more and more of our customers are asking us “What’s all the hubbub about the Google Algorithm Update?”. The PageRank of many websites could be affected by a newly considered website design factor: Mobile Friendliness.
What is this Google PageRank algorithm I keep hearing about?
The Google PageRank Algorithm is the algorithm that Google uses to rank websites against eachother in Google’s search results. This algorithm periodically gets updated to help improve the quality of search results provided by Google (click here for a complete history of the Google PageRank Algorithm Updates).
The April 21st update is considered to be more significant than many updates prior as it focuses on the mobile friendliness of all sites within the search database. (see: Google PageRank Algorithm, Wikipedia)
What is a mobile friendly website?
A mobile friendly site is considered to be any website that is configured to properly display the same pertinent information similarly across all viewing platforms, especially mobile devices. One mobile friendly technology that has been embraced widely by the web design industry is Responsive Web Design (see: What Is Responsive Web Design?). It is particularly interesting to note that nearly two-thirds or 65% of corporate websites were considered to not be mobile friendly as of April 2015, and even higher numbers.persist for small businesses and sole-proprietors.
How do I tell if my website is mobile friendly?
Luckily, finding out how your website fares when put to the mobile-friendly test isn’t hard to do. There are a number of tools available online that will emulate your website at various display sizes to simulate different handheld devices.
Currently, our favorite tool to use is IsResponsive.com. Simply go to that site, input the site address that you want to check for readiness and click the “Check” button! You will have to be a little patient as it is not as “speedy” as you are normally accustomed to. This is because IsResponsive actually loads your website almost a dozen times to be displayed for you at different mobile resolutions.
How Do I Make My Website Mobile Friendly?
If you have recently discovered that your website is not scoring well with mobile friendliness, it may be time for a responsive website re-design (see: What Is Responsive Web Design?). Give us a call today or click here to request more information from us about making your website ready for Google’s PageRank Algorithm Update!