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View Full Version : Google expanding use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal.



LarsJ
04-10-2015, 08:50 PM
Just making sure everyone knows about this. Couldn't find it on here. Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Finding more mobile-friendly search results (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html)
There is also a neat mobile friendly tester. Hope this helps...

vangogh
04-11-2015, 10:14 AM
Thanks Lars. You know I'm not sure if anyone has posted about this yet. I was going to, but I know I never did.

One thing I would suggest is not to panic if your site isn't mobile ready. If it isn't yet mobile ready, you should rework your site so it is, but I wouldn't panic. You're better off having this done right and waiting a few months than throwing up something to beat a Google deadline.

For anyone not sure how to make their site mobile ready, ask your designer/developer for a responsive site.

krymson
04-12-2015, 01:49 AM
For a quick fix at my day job, since we're using wordpress, we're going with the WPTouch plugin as a bandaid as we're currently having our new site built on a different platform. So there are quick bandages to hold you off until you can have a properly designed responsive site.

LarsJ
04-13-2015, 01:01 PM
Agreed. Also worth considering, besides the Google mobile ranking, is simply the number of people using smartphones these days just to browse online. If a site doesn't look at least half decent they'll move to one that is, especially in a very competitive market. Was nervous when trying their little mobile test but we're good to go! :-) Maybe a good marketing message/campaign asking if a site is mobile friendly and offering a "touch up" service...

krymson
04-13-2015, 01:28 PM
Agreed. Also worth considering, besides the Google mobile ranking, is simply the number of people using smartphones these days just to browse online. If a site doesn't look at least half decent they'll move to one that is, especially in a very competitive market. Was nervous when trying their little mobile test but we're good to go! :-) Maybe a good marketing message/campaign asking if a site is mobile friendly and offering a "touch up" service...

To expand upon this,

Nobody wants to have to pinch and pinch and pinch the screen so the content is visible. then click on a link and have to rinse and repeat. This is why Google is making this major algorithm change. Google's primary focus has ALWAYS been User Experience and Relevancy of Content. If you hit one, you won't rank as bad, but if you miss both, you probably wont rank at all.

I believe it should be standard practice NOW, by web developers, to build mobile friendly websites out of the box. It's far too easy with the amount of responsive frameworks made available. There should be no excuse that web developers are not putting out semantically coded and mobile responsive websites. I think now you will see who knows what they're doing versus someone who's pretending to be what we are. We now know "mobile-friendly" is not just a fad, but that it's here to stay.

Harold Mansfield
04-13-2015, 01:40 PM
I believe it should be standard practice NOW, by web developers, to build mobile friendly websites out of the box. It's far too easy with the amount of responsive frameworks made available. There should be no excuse that web developers are not putting out semantically coded and mobile responsive websites. I think now you will see who knows what they're doing versus someone who's pretending to be what we are. We now know "mobile-friendly" is not just a fad, but that it's here to stay.

For me it's pretty much been standard practice for about 2 years. It's not even a matter of asking "Do you need it to be responsive", and then adding an additional charge like a lot of designers do. Responsive is now default.

I do get a few calls a month from people asking if I can make their 5 year old website responsive. About half of them understand that it's easier to just rebuild from the ground up. The other half pretty much decide that it's not worth spending money on. People always spend the least amount possible on the web, but expect gang buster results...I still don't get that.

Freelancier
04-13-2015, 02:05 PM
After saying for years that there was no reason for my web site to cater to mobile phone users, just because I get about 4% of visitors from mobile devices, I'm paying to re-do my web site using a responsive scheme. This is somewhat tied into my expansion plans (I needed to update the features so that my new project manager could create some marketing pages to support his efforts) and somewhat because I want to reduce any friction that someone finding me might have to calling me.

I still don't think we'll get many mobile phone visitors to the site. But I know a trend when it beats me over the head....

krymson
04-13-2015, 03:06 PM
Freelancier, congrats by the way on upgrading your site I know its a stressful time for you. But to get you to think about things in a different perspective... How many times are you doing any kind of google searching on a mobile device? Multiply that by about a billion and it makes a difference. From an SEO perspective, the main reason sites need to be responsive is that Google penalizes mobile results for bad mobile UX, most people do A LOT of searching on their mobile devices. It goes back to the old keeping your name in front of the end user, they may not click on you but if they're dissatisfied from someone else who ranks right there with you in the search results for a keyword, then they'll remember your name (very vaguely but they'll remember it) and you'll have a better chance that they'll call you next.

If your site does not have a good mobile UX you wont rank for mobile search results and you've lost that opportunity to get your name in front of that searcher.

That's the way i think about it. It's not about a trend, its about keeping your name in front of your target audience.

David Hunter
04-13-2015, 03:30 PM
Yikes!!

My site isn't mobile friendly at all. :-( Is there certain WordPress plugins I can get to make it mobile friendly? I recently started learning more about Google Webmasters/Analytics and now this! Blah

Also, Lars, I found the direct link to Google's mobile-friendly test here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

Freelancier
04-13-2015, 04:26 PM
How many times are you doing any kind of google searching on a mobile device?That's the thing: my company is not a B2C, it's a B2B with emphasis on companies that are having trouble getting their IT to help them, so they're not advanced enough to use mobile devices for much and they're doing their search from work where they have a desktop computer for that activity. That's why my stats for mobile devices are so low, not because my site doesn't work well with it (they'd still show as a visitor!), but because my target audience isn't doing that.

But if it's hurting my search results (or costing me more money on adwords by having a lower quality score), then that's money I can recover by doing the upgrade and that makes sense to me. But doing it just because of a minuscule number of mobile visitors: that makes no sense to me.

krymson
04-13-2015, 05:01 PM
Ah you're in that slim niche of computer illiterate people. I know those people all too well. My hats off to you for your patience with those people. So yes, for your market, you have the right mindset. unfortunately this algorithm update affects people in your situation. But it's a good excuse to get a refreshed website. :D

krymson
04-13-2015, 05:10 PM
Yikes!!

My site isn't mobile friendly at all. :-( Is there certain WordPress plugins I can get to make it mobile friendly? I recently started learning more about Google Webmasters/Analytics and now this! Blah


David I've written a blog post that might help you out ("Mobilegeddon"- The wrath of Google - Jonathon Harrelson (http://jonathon-harrelson.com/mobilegeddon-the-wrath-of-google/)). There are some decent bandages out there. But i would NEVER rely on a plugin for my mobile experience. The issue with alot of the plugins is you have to recreate your theme for mobile. It's better if you bite the bullet and have a new site built that's responsive to all screen sizes. If that's a fair option for you, I or any of the other web designers (active users who have more than 10 posts ;) ) would be more than happy to help you get what you need done.

Personally there's 3 people I would recommend off of this site. Vangough, Harold Mansfield, and myself... Not necessarily in that order, but we are some of the more active members and I think we've show our expertise. If there's anyone else I missed that's more active than us please speak up and help Mr. David out here.

If you feel like you need more information, feel free to PM me and I will fill you in as best as possible.

Freelancier
04-13-2015, 05:21 PM
you're in that slim niche of computer illiterate people.Not at all. My best clients just don't use their phones to find my company. They're doing this kind of search at work on a desktop, because that's when they have time to do it or that's where they prefer. Most of them do their own PC support, have nice smartphones, want to use them to keep up with certain things, but when it comes to detailed searching for a company like mine, the tiny screen is a turn-off, so they wait until they're at their desk.

krymson
04-13-2015, 05:25 PM
Well that's good, sounds like you're dealing with better educated clients for the most part. Some of us can't say the same. :D

turboguy
04-13-2015, 09:21 PM
I am pretty much in the same boat with Freelancer. Very little of my sites traffic is on a mobile phone. For the small amount of traffic I get I would be most happy to have them slide their finger across their screens all they want and never give it a second thought. If I am going to lose a bunch of traffic over my sites not being responsive as seems to be the case that might reluctantly motivate me, but I can't say I am too happy about it.

Personally so many sites have gone mobile friendly and I really hate the results. There are a lot of sites I really enjoyed on my phone that now are horrible since they started catering to mobile phones. In this case I am talking about sites like MSN and Yahoo.

Harold Mansfield
04-14-2015, 09:47 AM
This can all be hashed up to progress.

We all knew and know that all this new technology is just that, new. We know that things change quickly.
We know that advances are constantly happening. We know keeping up cost money. We know this. We have always known this.

So can we really get our panties in a bunch about this? Not really.
If Google stayed the same, we'd be complaining about that.

The bottom line is Google isn't there for you, it's there for them...people searching. Just like any product or service they are telling you if you want to be a part of what we have, these are the requirements. Google is not a public trust or tax payer funded entity. You have no rights with them, and they owe you nothing.

It doesn't matter if you get any mobile traffic, Google wants to return the best results for it's users whatever device they are on. If you're not one of those results that will give a nice user experience, then you're out of luck. Your competition will and they'll list them first.

Remember, Google makes mobile devices. Google makes Android for mobile devices. Google makes Chrome...specifically built for mobile devices. If this is the company that you are trying to please and do business with, you're going to need to get with the program.

My question is chicken/egg...are you not getting mobile traffic because your target market doesn't have smart phones and tablets? Or are you not getting mobile traffic because your site is a nightmare to use on a tablet or smart phone?

If you're dead set that your number of visitors from mobile is so small that it's not worth the investment to get your business current with the changing times, then don't do it.
Just stop relying on search for traffic from Google and find other means to get your desktop using customers to your website. There are other means to get customers and market your business.

Freelancier
04-14-2015, 11:10 AM
My question is chicken/egg...are you not getting mobile traffic because your target market doesn't have smart phones and tablets? Or are you not getting mobile traffic because your site is a nightmare to use on a tablet or smart phone? Analytics makes the answer to this question simple to figure out. Every visitor is recorded by device type. If you're getting a significant number of visitors from a particular device type, then cater to it to keep them happy; otherwise, don't... unless you have to in order to keep Google happy.

David Hunter
04-14-2015, 11:22 AM
Thanks, Krymson.

It's funny, people want to view mobile responsive websites, but they keep getting phones that are bigger and bigger! You'd think my normal desktop view would be just fine. :-/

krymson
04-14-2015, 11:31 AM
(Going off on a tangent here)

I hate the fact that mobile devices are getting bigger. There's nothing more ridiculous than seeing someone with a friggin galaxy note that barely fits in their hand, holding it up to their ear talking on it. If im not mistaken we're regressing in terms of size, 15 years ago we had bricks for phones... we're moving back in that same direction. I thought mobile phones were supposed to be easy to fit in your pocket... I can't fit a note or iphone 6 plus in my pocket comfortably... thats why people put them in their back pockets, then they sit on the dang things and they wonder why they bend and break...

(back on track)
You would think it would be fine, but you have to remember, they can see your layout, but not the text without having to zoom in on it. Bottom line... people are lazy, if you have to add one more step to accomplish something, just one more step than your competitor, 9 times out of 10 they'll go with the competitor because it's "easier" not always best, but easier... That's the mentality of people today. That's why things aren't made like they used to be anymore. People look for shortcuts, produce an inferior product, but make a killing be cause it's cheaper and easier.

Harold Mansfield
04-14-2015, 11:47 AM
Analytics makes the answer to this question simple to figure out. Every visitor is recorded by device type. If you're getting a significant number of visitors from a particular device type, then cater to it to keep them happy; otherwise, don't... unless you have to in order to keep Google happy.

Not always. You can't just look at mobile visitors. If you're site isn't mobile friendly obviously those numbers are going to be low. You need to also look at your bounce rate. If it's high, it could be mobile users backing out immediately, which means Google will stop serving it up to mobile users, which means your mobile stats will be low.

Google demanding sites be responsive isn't new. They sent this signal out at least 2 years ago and they've been telling us since that it's going to affect your ranking.
Now they're just making it law, but it's been a factor for a LONG time. It's not just starting.

vangogh
04-15-2015, 10:26 AM
For a quick fix at my day job, since we're using wordpress, we're going with the WPTouch plugin

Jonathon I used that plugin for a year or two and it worked well enough for me. It did serve as a quick fix. Ultimately everyone should have a responsive site. Responsive design is designing sites so they work no matter what device is used to access them.

I've been building responsive sites for the last four years now. The first one or two will take a little longer to build and then after that it's just part of what you do to design and developer a website.

As far as checking analytics first or thinking about how many people visit your site on phones, I wouldn't use either as rationalization not to do this. PC sales are down. Smartphone sales are up. That's going to continue. For a lot of people around the world, a smartphone is their computer and they won't be getting anything else.

Harold Mansfield
04-15-2015, 10:29 AM
(Going off on a tangent here)

I hate the fact that mobile devices are getting bigger. There's nothing more ridiculous than seeing someone with a friggin galaxy note that barely fits in their hand, holding it up to their ear talking on it. If im not mistaken we're regressing in terms of size, 15 years ago we had bricks for phones... we're moving back in that same direction. I thought mobile phones were supposed to be easy to fit in your pocket... I can't fit a note or iphone 6 plus in my pocket comfortably... thats why people put them in their back pockets, then they sit on the dang things and they wonder why they bend and break...


Lol. Nice Rant and I get you. I'm like that on a lot of things too.

I started with pagers. Then there were the pagers that displayed messages. I had a brick. I had the Startac. I've had flips, Palms, Blackberries, flips again. I've had them all.

But as a Galaxy Note Owner, I can say without a doubt that it is the best phone (mini computer) that I've ever owned. I thought the same thing about the size until I handled my buddy's Galaxy Note 3. It's glorious. It makes web browsing on a phone much more enjoyable because you can actually see the screen. Responsive websites look amazing on it, and when built correctly very easy to use.

It's also a great tool for all kinds of things and operations. I do far more things on my phone now, and doing them is much more enjoyable because they actually work. It is the perfect device for my office/business functions and for my personal life..following sports updates, Fantasy Football, voice, text, email , and video communications and so on.

As far as fitting in my pocket, I don't wear tight hipster jeans. I'm usually in lose fitting shorts 99% of the time, so it's not an issue. I don't even have a case on mine and have dropped it at least 3 times...not a scratch on it.

Sure, it's not for everyone. You have many choices. But as a Small Business Owner and as a person who just likes new tech...seriously...the best phone I've ever owned.

Harold Mansfield
04-15-2015, 10:39 AM
As far as checking analytics first or thinking about how many people visit your site on phones, I wouldn't use either as rationalization not to do this. PC sales are down. Smartphone sales are up. That's going to continue. For a lot of people around the world, a smartphone is their computer and they won't be getting anything else.

I have to agree. For work I'm a desktop person...multiple monitors, server, power backups..the more power, speed, and security the better. I really love the fact that desktop sales are down because you can buy or build a nice powerhouse for far cheaper than it used to be.

But the world is slimming down. Most of my clients have laptops or less. When I'm servicing or building a site and ask the client what size screen they're looking at it on, typically the answer is 15" and under. 13" and 10" are common. Laptops and tablets. That is the norm now. So much so that people are starting to ask me if I can build something that they can manage from their tablet.

I recently had a client call me for some support issues, and he NEVER looked at the site from his computer. Whenever I asked him to review something he was ALWAYS looking at it on his phone.

Personally, I think that's jumping the gun too quickly. We aren't at the stage where you should be trying to run your business from just a mobile device but I can see where it is going.

I'll probably always be a desktop person for work as long as that's the best way to run multiple monitors..besides I like adding my own mods and customizations.. but I'm not the norm.

JOSourcing
04-17-2015, 06:26 PM
Like Freelancier, I put it off too and swore up and down it just wasn't necessary for my site. But since it's on everyone's mind, I figured what the heck. (I supposed I really just became a bit worried.)

But I didn't go the responsive-route. I redirected mobile users (based on screensize) via JavaScript to a bare-bones HTML page in a separate directory. Seems to have worked!

krymson
04-20-2015, 12:19 PM
Like Freelancier, I put it off too and swore up and down it just wasn't necessary for my site. But since it's on everyone's mind, I figured what the heck. (I supposed I really just became a bit worried.)

But I didn't go the responsive-route. I redirected mobile users (based on screensize) via JavaScript to a bare-bones HTML page in a separate directory. Seems to have worked!

I wouldn't do it by screen size. Because Googlebot has no screen size. What it does have is a user agent though. So right now what you're currently doing will not be beneficial for you. I would adjust it to read the user agent so that way googlebot will see the right thing. Preferably you'd want a responsive site, but that's best case scenario.

JOSourcing
04-20-2015, 01:26 PM
I wouldn't do it by screen size. Because Googlebot has no screen size. What it does have is a user agent though. So right now what you're currently doing will not be beneficial for you. I would adjust it to read the user agent so that way googlebot will see the right thing. Preferably you'd want a responsive site, but that's best case scenario.

I will probably make a responsive site later on, but as of right now, I'm passing Google's mobile test with a redirecting JavaScript (Based on Google's own suggestion).

krymson
04-20-2015, 01:36 PM
Ah ok, well if you're passing their mobile test then there's nothing to worry about. I didn't know if Google would look at javascript and show it by a viewport size. Good to know.

Harold Mansfield
04-21-2015, 10:02 AM
In Mashable this morning


Google (http://mashable.com/category/google/) is introducing a new algorithm that affects how mobile search results appear — a significant change that will take anywhere from several days to a week to roll out.


It's impossible to determine just how many of the Internet's 177 million sites are mobile-friendly, but Forrester Research estimates that just 38% of all enterprise web sites — sites for businesses with 1,000 or more employees — don’t meet Google’s criteria. That number doesn’t even include sites for small businesses that rely on location-based searches, which shoppers discover via queries like “pizza delivery in downtown San Francisco.”

Google to websites: Be mobile-friendly or get buried in search (http://mashable.com/2015/04/21/google-mobile-search-2/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link)

hogo192
04-21-2015, 10:34 AM
"For anyone not sure how to make their site mobile ready, ask your designer/developer for a responsive site."

Hi vangogh
I am completely agree with your above line, Again it is not cleared by Google which terms should be use for Mobile Friendly website? It always hide something for hammer your site.

Harold Mansfield
04-21-2015, 01:25 PM
"For anyone not sure how to make their site mobile ready, ask your designer/developer for a responsive site."

Hi vangogh
I am completely agree with your above line, Again it is not cleared by Google which terms should be use for Mobile Friendly website? It always hide something for hammer your site.
Actually how to build a responsive site is pretty clear. You don't need Google to tell you how to design a website.

Brian Altenhofel
04-22-2015, 07:51 PM
I wouldn't do it by screen size. Because Googlebot has no screen size. What it does have is a user agent though. So right now what you're currently doing will not be beneficial for you. I would adjust it to read the user agent so that way googlebot will see the right thing. Preferably you'd want a responsive site, but that's best case scenario.

Just because Googlebot doesn't have a screen doesn't mean it can't render a page and measure where elements are located within a certain canvas, how they are sized (including fonts), etc. Similar things are done with headless automated UI/UX testing quite often these days. I'm willing to bet that Googlebot uses multiple canvases.

krymson
04-23-2015, 04:28 PM
They probably do, those guys over there are some of the smartest people in the world... they're probably 10 steps a head of all of us.

LarsJ
04-23-2015, 06:41 PM
We get indexed by Baidu all the time. Wonder how they handle the mobile website thingy... Then got me wondering how translation services handle certain sites and is it even "translation friendly"
"Baidu is one of many ­Chinese Web ­companies on a ­collision course with Internet leaders such as Google, ­Facebook, and Amazon as they look abroad for new customers." I know we get visits from Japan where Baidu is offering search engines. On top of that, some are from smartphones. Baidu has a pretty impressive translation app that can even identify a photo and name it in English etc. For a site selling a product that does not involve tons of communication to get a sale, this is interesting for sure.

Baidu got a patent for determining website popularity by the number if inbound links, 1 year before Google's PageRank algorithm and catching up for sure...