Few things get a webmaster’s attention quite like waking up to a Twitter feed filled with news about a major algorithm update. In the world of SEO, hummingbirds, pandas, and penguins are akin to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Most algorithm updates come with vague or no warning, but Google recently announced, “Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.”
Game on Google – Time to Prepare for Mobilegeddon
Google may have announced the update early, but it hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with details. Webmaster trends analyst Gary Illyes did share a few details in a recent Q&A.
Most notably:
- Responsive design does not have a ranking benefit
- Googlebot must be allowed to crawl CSS & JavaScript to pass the “mobile-friendly” test
- Mobile friendliness is determined at the page level – not sitewide
- Tablets will not be affected by this update
- Google is currently working on a dedicated mobile index
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