Google has announced that, from May 2016, it is going to increase the weighting it gives to mobile-friendliness in its ranking algorithm. Mobile-friendliness has been a ranking factor since April 2015, but the impact of that so-called “Mobilegeddon” was minimal, with rankings not seeing any large effect. Its recent announcement shows that it is getting more serious about providing the best results for mobile users, as the number of people accessing the internet via a mobile phone rises worldwide. The change means that websites will rank higher in the search results if their website is classed as mobile-friendly, if the user is searching using a mobile phone. Webmasters are advised to check whether their websites are mobile-friendly using its Mobile-Friendly Test and, if the test says their website is not mobile-friendly, to make changes based on the advice it gives in its Webmaster Mobile Guide. Google did give one caveat, however, stating that websites will still rank highly if they contain extremely relevant, high quality content, even if they are not mobile-friendly.Â
