09 Feb Google Warns Websites That Are Not Mobile-Optimized

As Google continues to improve the mobile user experience, it’s obvious that brands with responsive websites benefit more from these efforts. However, Google has gotten a bit more aggressive and recently sent out a warning to webmasters via Webmaster Tools whose sites have mobile issues.

The warning highlights pages with ‘critical mobile usability errors;’ in other words, which pages do not display correctly on a mobile device. The warning goes on to state that, “these pages will not be seen as mobile-friendly by Google Search, and will therefore be displayed and ranked appropriately for smartphone users.”

What specifically does this mean? That Google will now rank non-mobile friendly sites lower during mobile users’ searches. Their new mobile algorithm gives preference to mobile optimized sites in its search results.

With mobile traffic rising across every field and market, this update from Google will have a direct impact on traffic and sales. It’s imperative for brands to audit and update their mobile performance accordingly.

If your website is not mobile-friendly, do not take this warning lightly. Google will continue to reward brands that are investing in their user experience by gearing up for the multi-screen and multi device world – from PC, to tablet, to smartphone – and plans to penalize those that don’t.

To find out where your website stands, try Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool to identify any issues that will negatively affect your mobile rankings.

image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net