Is your website optimised for various mobile devices? If not, it’s time to get cracking. Google recently announced that it will launch an algorithm update on April 21, 2015. The update is set to benefit websites and online business owners with mobile-friendly online spaces.
“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal,” Google said on their Webmaster Central blog. The tech giant also announced that they would be using more indexed content from apps in search results, which is something that they have already started doing. So if your website is not mobile-friendly, you are likely to lose a lot of traffic when Google’s new algorithm update rolls out a couple of weeks from now.
So how do you know if your website is mobile-friendly and ready for Google’s latest update? Tom Demers, co-founder and managing partner of Measure SEM and Cornerstone Content, recommend some tools that you can use to gauge the mobile friendliness of your website.
Google’s Mobile Friendliness tool
The tech giant has a mobile friendliness test that you can access via its Webmaster Tools. Just enter the URL of your website and Google will give you a mobile friendly or unfriendly thumbs up or thumbs down. The test will also give you a quick screenshot of your site as Google sees it. If you website is deemed “mobile unfriendly,” Google will offer specific recommendations so you’ll know which areas to fix so you can fully optimise your website for mobile devices.
Google’s Page Speed Insights tool
This tool lets you know how fast or slow your site loads when viewed on a mobile device. It also offers some recommendations for your site in case there are issues that need to be fixed. Take note that that mobile friendliness tool and the page speed insights tool report differently. In the former, your site will be viewed the way Googlebot would, while the latter views it as a human user would.
Mobile Usability Report
When you logged into Webmaster Tools, you can access the mobile usability report. This will help you determine the problems with regards to mobile friendliness each of your web pages might be experiencing. Google will also send you notifications through Webmaster Tools in the event that your site doesn’t meet the mobile friendliness requirements.
If you want to benefit from Google’s upcoming algorithm update, make sure that you do everything you can to ensure that your site will be rendered properly and correctly on various mobile devices. This way, you can attract traffic and generate lots of conversions.
