This is big news. As of today Google is posting alerts on Google AdSense, Google Analytics, and its other systems to notify webmaster and site owners that those websites which demonstrate responsive web design (adapt to various mobile devices) will be rewarded with more search traffic. Whereas those that are not responsive will be penalized in some way. The attached image shows what Publishers using Google AdSense to monetize their websites saw after logging in today.
Google has been discussing this for a while now, and as of now, it’s real. Google official language suggests “mobile-friendliness is now considered as a Google Search ranking signal”.
Impact
The impact should be clear: ensure your website is responsive, and as such it renders well on mobile devices of all sizes and operating system, or be prepared to see a drop in your rank in Google Search results.
Next Steps
Test your website to see how it looks on various mobile devices. If the user has to scroll left and right, if images break, if there are big areas of white space, or if overall it’s a non-intuitive experience then your site is not truly responsive. Your next step should be to pursue a mobile-friendly (aka responsive design) website designer and developer.
We Can Help
Every single website we build is mobile-friendly and responsive web design such that they render well on all of the most popular mobile devices. Not only that, every website we build is architected to perform well for search.
