Top things you need to know about this week’s Google mobile-friendly update
There are many questions and concerns swirling related to the Google launch of the mobile-friendly update. Here are some of the common questions and the answers about the release of the new algorithm scheduled for April 21st.
Q. Who will be effected by the algorithmic update, now labeled “Mobilegeddon”?
A. The update will effect mobile searchers and it will give a ranking boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results.
Q. Will it effect desktop searchers?
A. No, it only impacts mobile searchers. This only impacts searches conducted on mobile smartphone devices, not tablets.
Q. Will my desktop rankings be effected?
A. It will not effect your desktop rankings.
Q. How can I know if my site is mobile-friendly?
A. There are a few ways, however the only way to know your site is indexed by Google as mobile-friendly is to check if your site has the mobile-friendly label in mobile search results. The mobile-friendly testing tool will indicate if you pass the test, but it may still take Google time to pick up on the fact that your pages are mobile-friendly.
Q. If I update my site to be mobile-friendly today, how long will it take Google to pick up the changes?
A. Google will pick up changes in real time. Google has to crawl your web pages to determine if they are mobile-friendly. The mobile-friendly algorithm is on a page by page basis. Based on research conducted by Search Engine Roundtable, the amount of time it will take Google to notice the change and rank pages accordingly depends on how much content on the site changes on a regular basis. It can take from a few hours to over 72 hours for all pages.
Read more at Search Engine Land about the Google Mobile Friendly update.
Stay tuned, there’s sure to be more news about Mobilegeddon as it rolls out.
