SO it seems Google are now getting very serious about encouraging website owners to make their websites ‘Mobile Friendly’.

It used to be that mobile friendly sites were something that everyone knew they should have but had the choice of overlooking if budget, time or just plain laziness got in the way.

Not anymore… It’s time to bite the bullet because Google has made it clear that in simple terms; sites that suck on mobile won’t get ranked as high on mobile search.

Google has issued the following notification via webmaster tools and email to owners of sites that are not ‘Mobile-Friendly’.

 

Google-Prefers-Mobile-Friendly-SEO

 

Based on this notification it’s clear that Google intends to favour ‘Mobile Friendly’ sites in search. The question now is, when will we see an algorithm change to reflect this favouritism?

Google have told searchengineland.com that they have been experimenting with new mobile friendly search algorithms since November so my guess is that non mobile friendly sites will begin to feel the pressure by mid to late this year.

My opinion is… It’s about time. My advice is, don’t wait till you see your rankings get hit and start planning development now.

Additional information:

Google Webmaster Central Blog: Changes in rankings of smartphone search results
Posted June 11, 2013

Search Engine Land: Google Sending Mobile Usability Warnings To Huge Number Of Webmasters
Posted January 19, 2015