After April 21st, 2015, websites in Google search engines will not only be labeled as mobile-friendly but also be ranked accordingly. While several rumors have been flying around, some sources of information seem to be reliable. Here’s an effort to draw a clear picture of the April 21st update that has been making a buzz among web marketers across the globe. What changes are to be expected in Google’s search algorithms? Google, for long has been rolling out changes to its mobile SERP layout and apps presentation in Google PlayStore. Not all of these changes have been making news but there is reason to believe that these are to support the April 21st update. It’s almost certain that Google algorithm will be supported by a new mobile Bot/crawler, which again is more likely to be based with Android user-agent. In March, Google even brought out new guidelines for mobile friendliness that focus primarily on exposing apps built on CSS and Java as many single web pages use JS for their fluid and app-like appearance. Adequate examples for this would be pinterest.com, techcrunch.com, hulu.com, and Facebook’s news feed. The Mobile friendly test There is a reason to believe that the “mobile friendly’ labeling by Google SERP would be temporary. The only aim is to get webmasters and SEO incentivized and make their designs crawlable. The label actually looks clunky and covers up a lot of space. We expect that the current label would be transformed into a “show tag” option beside SERP links/suggestions. However, it is also surprising that Google has not laid any importance on page speed, mobile-only errors and redirects as a part of the April 21st update. Well there could be two reasons. Either they will come into focus after the initial April 21st update or Google will be completely ignoring them since search engine Bots rely completely on feeds for relevant information. After April 21st, mobile web pages and apps will have to be responsive to a certain size of font, guided by the viewport and manage links in a way that it gets easier to click, among the other things. If a site isn’t mobile friendly, will it affect desktop SEO ranking? The same question was asked in a panel discussion at SMX Munich and Zineb’s answer from Google was a clear “no”. This is a possible indication that the new indexing will come with a new crawler and there could be a major change in the infrastructure to evaluate, parse and index mobile searches. However, webmasters should always take some time to make their websites mobile friendly, at least passable. You never quite know for sure if there would/wouldn’t be a desktop repercussion. How much impact will the April 21st update have on mobile ranking? Zineb, addressing the same Munich panel said that the April 21st update will be much bigger than the Panda or Penguin. While it is not quite clear whether all mobile devices will be affected, there certainly will be an infrastructure change. There is a possibility that the new change will affect Android SERP more or affect both Android and iOS SERP equally. The key distinction between the two platforms is deep linking. However, there are also rumors that this gap is going to be bridged soon. Emails will find a more pressing place in mobile SERPS via Google Now. Marked up emails will be indexed and will be attached to user profiles. Email optimization for mobile will also be an important part of the April 21st update. How does one know if his website fulfills the requirements? Google’s Mobile Friendliness Tool answers with a simple “yes” or “no” after checking the URL of a website. Every page will be individually evaluated and it makes sense if you can alternatively do a site query of the domain in question. This will give you detailed information about all the indexed pages and the pages which have been turned “mobile friendly”. There is no middle ground. Either your web page is mobile friendly or it isn’t. The labels can however take some time to show up depending upon the activity of the crawler. If you are updating a site after April 21st, you must wait for a re-crawl to happen.
After April 21st, 2015, websites in Google search engines will not only be labeled as mobile-friendly but also be ranked accordingly. While several rumors have been flying around, some sources of information seem to be reliable. Here’s an effort to draw a clear picture of the April 21st update that has been making a buzz among web marketers across the globe.
Google, for long has been rolling out changes to its mobile SERP layout and apps presentation in Google PlayStore. Not all of these changes have been making news but there is reason to believe that these are to support the April 21st update. It’s almost certain that Google algorithm will be supported by a new mobile Bot/crawler, which again is more likely to be based with Android user-agent. In March, Google even brought out new guidelines for mobile friendliness that focus primarily on exposing apps built on CSS and Java as many single web pages use JS for their fluid and app-like appearance. Adequate examples for this would be pinterest.com, techcrunch.com, hulu.com, and Facebook’s news feed.
There is a reason to believe that the “mobile friendly’ labeling by Google SERP would be temporary. The only aim is to get webmasters and SEO incentivized and make their designs crawlable. The label actually looks clunky and covers up a lot of space. We expect that the current label would be transformed into a “show tag” option beside SERP links/suggestions.
However, it is also surprising that Google has not laid any importance on page speed, mobile-only errors and redirects as a part of the April 21st update. Well there could be two reasons. Either they will come into focus after the initial April 21st update or Google will be completely ignoring them since search engine Bots rely completely on feeds for relevant information. After April 21st, mobile web pages and apps will have to be responsive to a certain size of font, guided by the viewport and manage links in a way that it gets easier to click, among the other things.
The same question was asked in a panel discussion at SMX Munich and Zineb’s answer from Google was a clear “no”. This is a possible indication that the new indexing will come with a new crawler and there could be a major change in the infrastructure to evaluate, parse and index mobile searches. However, webmasters should always take some time to make their websites mobile friendly, at least passable. You never quite know for sure if there would/wouldn’t be a desktop repercussion.
Zineb, addressing the same Munich panel said that the April 21st update will be much bigger than the Panda or Penguin. While it is not quite clear whether all mobile devices will be affected, there certainly will be an infrastructure change. There is a possibility that the new change will affect Android SERP more or affect both Android and iOS SERP equally. The key distinction between the two platforms is deep linking. However, there are also rumors that this gap is going to be bridged soon.
Emails will find a more pressing place in mobile SERPS via Google Now. Marked up emails will be indexed and will be attached to user profiles. Email optimization for mobile will also be an important part of the April 21st update.