Google release ‘mobile friendly’ update

Earlier this year, Google announced that they will be rolling out a mobile-friendly algorithm update which has now been released worldwide. Google are now boosting rankings for mobile-friendly websites on mobile search results.

This means it will be easier to find high-quality, mobile-friendly website that have easy to click buttons, simple navigation and readable text without having to pinch and zoom.  

This update will affect search rankings on mobile devices and only applies to individual pages and not entire websites.

Here are 5 of the most frequently asked questions regarding the update and how it will affect rankings within Google:

1. Will desktop rankings be affected?

No, this algorithm update will have no effect on searches from a desktop. It will only affect search results on a mobile device.

2. Will it affect single pages or the complete website?

The mobile-friendliness update is a page-level change, meaning it will only affect individual pages. So if you only have 5 mobile-friendly pages on your website, only those pages will have a positive impact on your SEO.

3. How long does it take for a page to be considered mobile-friendly and rank accordingly?

Many estate agents, although are in the process of upgrading their websites and becoming mobile-friendly won’t have it in place by the 21^st April. Unfortunately this means your website is likely to suffer until it is upgraded. However, Google determines a page as mobile-friendly every time they crawl and index your website so as soon as your website know is upgraded Google will know almost immediately. This means within a few days of your website being upgraded that you will be considered mobile-friendly by Google and won’t have to wait for Google to make another update.

If you don’t want to wait for Google to naturally crawl your website, you can speed up the process by using Webmaster tools.

4. How long will it take to see if my rankings have dropped?

If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website and your websites rankings haven’t dropped yet, it doesn’t mean they won’t drop.

You won’t be able to determine if you website is safe until all your pages and your competitions pages have been crawled and indexed which may take a week or two.

5. Will your website disappear if it’s not mobile-friendly?

Having a mobile-friendly website is crucial for every estate agent but this mobile-friendliness signal is still only one (although a very strong one) of a variety of signals used to rank search results, so if you have a well optimised, highly trusted and reputable website that isn’t mobile-friendly it doesn’t necessarily mean you will disappear from the search engine results completely. Also bear in mind that if you have a mobile-friendly website it doesn’t mean you can ignore all other SEO factors and still expect to rank.

This mobile-friendly update by Google will have a huge impact on the search engine results so ensure it is your top priority to get a responsive website.