What You Should Know About Mobile-Friendliness As A Google Ranking Factor

Mobile devices now account for more than half of all web searches, despite the fact that desktop computers dominated for much of the internet’s brief history.

As smartphones became more common, so did a mobile search, forcing Google to reconsider its approach to ranking mobile-friendly sites.

This resulted in an event dubbed “mobilegeddon” by the SEO community.

Is that as terrifying as it sounds? Is mobile friendliness still a ranking factor today?

This chapter will look into the claims and clarify the impact of mobile friendliness on search rankings.

Mobile-Friendliness Is a Ranking Factor, According to the Claim

Websites that are optimized for mobile screens are said to rank higher than sites that are only optimized for desktops.

This claim stems from the fact that a larger percentage of searches are conducted on mobile devices, as well as the understanding that Google strives to serve pages that provide the best user experience.

With the majority of users searching on mobile, providing results that work on both mobile and desktop can ensure the best user experience.

Prior to mobile becoming the dominant way people searched Google, it was common for users to land on pages that were not optimized for their smartphone or tablet.

Users understandably became frustrated when they couldn’t easily navigate to pages.

Google was confronted with a problem with search quality.

Waiting for webmasters to make their sites compatible with all devices could have taken years if there had been no incentive.

Google couldn’t compel websites to become mobile-friendly, and it wouldn’t be fair to threaten websites with sanctions for having an out-of-date design.

Instead, Google took the opposite approach, rewarding domains that chose a mobile-friendly design on their own.

The ranking advantage gained by mobile-optimized sites accelerated the widespread adoption of responsive web design.

It’s no longer uncommon to perform a mobile search and end up on a page that isn’t optimized for a smartphone.

Is this due to the fact that mobile friendliness is a ranking factor?

Or are there simply more mobile-friendly websites on the internet?

It’s most likely a combination of the two.

Here is what the evidence indicates.

The Proof That Mobile-Friendliness Is A Ranking Factor

The term “Mobilegeddon” is not a myth (though, to be clear, the term “Mobilegeddon” did not originate with Google). It happened on April 21, 2015, two months after it was announced.

When Google released what is officially known as the “mobile-friendly update,” it stated:

“As we noted earlier this year, today’s the day we begin globally rolling out our mobile-friendly update. We’re boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results.
Now searchers can more easily find high-quality and relevant results where text is readable without tapping or zooming, tap targets are spaced appropriately, and the page avoids unplayable content or horizontal scrolling.”

A year later, in 2016, Google announced that the mobile-friendly ranking signal would be strengthened:

“Today we’re announcing that beginning in May, we’ll start rolling out an update to mobile search results that increases the effect of the ranking signal to help our users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly.”

The mobile-friendly update was only intended to have an effect on mobile search results.

When a user searched on a desktop, there was no boost for mobile-friendly sites.

Despite the fact that mobile friendliness has become a stronger ranking factor over time, Google reminds us that user intent is a more powerful signal.

If a page is the best match for what the user is looking for, it can still rank in mobile search results even if it isn’t optimized for mobile.

“And remember, the intent of the search query is still a very strong signal — so even if a page with high quality content is not mobile-friendly, it could still rank well if it has great, relevant content.”

Google, on the other hand, advises in its Mobile-first indexing best practices documentation:

“While it’s not required to have a mobile version of your pages to have your content included in Google’s Search results, it is very strongly recommended.”