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Dear users!
On April 21, 2015, Google launched a new mobile-friendly search algorithm, which involves identifying smartphone-friendly web pages and giving them priority when ranking in mobile search results. After the algorithm came into effect, the relevance of this topic has grown significantly, which is why we offer you a series of releases on mobile website optimization.
A site convenient for mobile users
In the first release, we will consider Google’s general requirements for the mobile usability of web resources, touch on the features of the new ranking algorithm, and tell you how to check whether your site is ready to receive mobile users.
Usability criteria
Research conducted by the Mobile Internet solutions development agency “Mobile Kitchen” testifies to the sad fact that more than 63% of the top online stores in Russia (from the Kommersant magazine rating) are inconvenient for viewing on smartphones. In general, more than 90% of Russian websites are absolutely not ready to receive mobile users, despite the fact that their share of the total number of Internet users is more than 50%.
What makes a website inconvenient for mobile users? Google specialists name a number of errors that prevent a website from being smartphone-friendly:
The example below shows two websites with similar topics, one of which meets the requirements of mobile-friendly, and the other does not (Fig. 1).
From the given example it becomes clear that a page convenient for mobile users has the following usability criteria:
First of all, owners of electronic media, blogs, commercial platforms (online stores, corporate sites, etc.), sites with entertainment content should think about mobile adaptation of sites (or rather, already start acting). These are the resources that daily collect a large number of views from mobile devices, when users read news, watch videos or choose goods and services “on the run”. We will talk about methods of adapting sites for mobile devices in the second issue of the series.
Features of the mobile-friendly algorithm
First of all, it is worth noting that the mobile-friendly algorithm, launched by Google on April 21, affects only the results of Google mobile search (mobile and desktop search results do not correlate) and affects only smartphones. The mobile usability of individual pages is assessed, not the site as a whole. Thus, by optimizing a number of pages, it is already possible to benefit from this algorithm. In addition, according to Google representatives, setting up the algorithm can take several weeks, so webmasters still have enough time to modify their resources.
This algorithm allows for exceptions when desktop versions of sites can be ranked higher than mobile ones. This is possible in the case of branded queries (a non-adapted brand site will have priority), as well as high relevance of page content (the content quality signal remains quite strong in mobile search). According to Google experts, the impact of the update will be quite large-scale and will affect more than 11% of the total number of mobile search results.
An interesting fact is that one of the ranking factors in mobile search is also the presence of a mobile application on the site, provided that it is indexed by the Google bot and already installed on the user’s device (so far only on the Android platform), and the user is authorized in the Google system. Thus, in the search, you can see a link to the application and open it without going to the main site.
Website verification tools
For the convenience of webmasters, Google has developed a number of services that will help determine in one click whether sites meet the requirements of the new algorithm. The first service is Mobile-Friendly Test allows you to find out how the search robot sees the pages of your site. This test may return errors and an incorrect screenshot of the page if some directives in the Robots.txt file are blocked for robot access. In terms of optimizing your site for mobile search, this report is the most important (Fig. 2).
The second tool, PageSpeed Insights, shows the page as it appears on the user’s smartphone screen. In addition, the tool checks the loading speed and provides basic technical recommendations (Fig. 3).
Traffic Tracking
You can track mobile traffic using the Search Query Analysis tool for webmasters, which has undergone significant changes and now allows you to analyze search traffic in more detail, in particular from mobile devices.
Conclusions
The new Google algorithm has “spurred” webmasters around the world to take up mobile optimization of sites in order not to lose the lion’s share of Internet users from devices on the Android and iOS platforms. Even if you don’t expect search traffic (or its share is extremely small), it is still important to take care of comfortable interaction of mobile users with your site, since visitors can go to it via an external link or via the address they themselves specified in the browser line. Don’t miss the next issues of our newsletter: in them we will tell you about adaptation techniques and SEO rules for mobile sites.
