Google has rolled out a major update to its algorithm since April 2015.
This update rewards sites that display correctly on mobile-friendly devices, while penalizing those that are not in “mobile” search results.
Demian Farnworth sums up Google’s announcement quite well in this blog post.
The “Panda and Penguin ” filters were characterized by deployment warnings that kept their mysteries. They made webmasters and SEOs “think” about the quality of their work.
In the case of fear of these penalties, the cheaters were caught between the panic of undoing their spam when it was possible or of “ squeezing their butts ” in the hope of going under the radar…
The rules of the game are different this time on two points
The warning is explicit: a change in the algorithm is applied, we know why, we have the date of deployment and it is easy to evade the penalty.
This is not a “punishment,” but a firm warning and a severe incentive to upgrade websites for one type of device
Posted by Google on February 26, 2015:
As of April 21st, given the expansion of mobile device usage habits in web searches, we have decided to make the quality of the display of sites on mobile devices, a quality parameter integrated into the algorithm of our search engine. This change will significantly affect searches on smartphones and tablets in all languages around the world and will have a significant impact on SEO in the SERP.
Note that the date of April 21st is important, it is written in bold in the announcement!
Also note that Google uses the term ” significant ” which the dictionary defines as “important”, “loaded with meaning”. It’s a word that is used in serious circumstances, it even has a connotation of the type “You’d better be careful”
Keep in mind that the filter is only for mobile results and not desktop results.
A “label” will gradually be deployed
Google also announces in this article that a “Mobile-friendly” label will be deployed in the SERP
This label will be displayed worldwide during the months of May and June 2015.
Common sense criterion
Just take note that a page is eligible for the “mobile-friendly” label if it meets Googlebot’s criteria, namely:
- no use of unreadable technology on mobile devices, such as Flash
- Uses readable font case without zooming
- Adapts the size of content to the screen that exposes it so that the user does not have to scroll horizontally or zoom in
- That the hyperlinks are far enough from each other that they can be clicked with your fingers without clicking on the neighboring link.
It is not necessarily necessary to change the coding language of the site.
Even if it is preferable today to update your website to responsive, it is still possible to bring old html1 sites into compliance according to the references imposed by the Google search engine.
Can you deprive yourself of 20-60% of your traffic?
If you have analytic installed on your website, you probably know the origin of the traffic your site generates
- by device type (desktop, laptop, tablet)
- by Brand and Device
- by browser
- by browser language
- by geographical origin
There are so many statistics in analytic that you get lost quickly, but check the menus on the vertical bar on the left
- Mobile > Audience > Overview, over a one-month period
You can’t miss the proportion of visits from smartphones and pads of all kinds. And a large number of craftsmen would be surprised to know about this trafficking.
From one profession to another, the percentages of visits coming from these media are sometimes dizzying, cafes and restaurants and other places to go out, in particular, should not neglect these figures.
Most of my customers are above 35%, we touch more than 50% for restaurants, only very technical themes fall below the 20% mark.
Your site ready for Google’s mobile-friendly update.
The good news is that getting out of this “sideline” is easy and that it is only a matter of bring your source code into compliance.
Nothing to do with the complexity of Panda or Penguin penalty exits
If you act now, you will be compliant within 24 hours, and will no longer fear anything.
The SME SEO solution!
To help you prepare to pass the barrier of Google’s official verification tool , we offer you a lightning upgrade, a compliance intervention at the minimum price.
Understand, the modification of the code at least so that the site passes the verification page test.
It is therefore not
- nor a costly proposal for a recast
- nor a change in the coding language
- nor a change of graphics
- nor a dynamic personalized page that would replace it if displayed on a mobile device
- or a specific and different mobile site
It’s just an adaptation of the CSS sheet so that the site passes the test positively.
How much will this adaptation cost?
It is because each site is different, that it is impossible to offer a fixed price.
Thus, depending on the technology of your portal, it is possible that the compatibility of your site depends on only a few, while for others, a quasi-redesign will be the real solution.
We therefore offer an evaluation of the work and a quick submission via the form below.
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Depending on experience and the cases already settled, this compliance will be in the range of $350 to $600.
When it is impossible to process the site below that $600 mark, we will tell you why.
Almost any site can be made compatible
Namely, in general, on the adaptation of websites for mobiles
Totally transforming a website for mobile is a big job.
There are three possible methods.
Responsive design
This is the method I recommend most of the time, as it only requires a code base that is compatible with all current platforms (web, mobile, tablet).
The content of the page adapts to the width of the screen using programmed breakpoints/reorders. You only have one site, one piece of content to manage.
It is this option that I am using in this proposal.
The other two techniques are particularly suitable for certain sectors of activity, I talk about them in this blog post.
Dynamic Custom Pages
This approach consists of detecting the type of device used by the visitor and displaying a page designed specifically for his mobile or tablet. The advantage of this choice is the ability to customize each type of device.
On the other hand, content management is more difficult, because the data is independent/different for each site.
A different and specific mobile site
The third option is to create a site specifically designed for mobile installed as a subdomain (like “mob.nomdedomaine.com”). This site is, both in its content and its ergonomics, designed for mobile.
A disadvantage of this platform is its redirection to a different URL, which can increase the loading time of the target site. Don’t forget the impact of managing different content and the nuances of the customer experience.
An article written by Kristof, director and consultant of Référencement PME, SEO agency, Montreal.