“Mobile May” is upon us. The Google mobile-friendly update planned to launch this month is finally here. If you’ve seen some movement to your mobile rankings over the last day, there’s a good chance you’ve been affected.
John Mueller confirmed the update on Twitter and stated yesterday that the update was “fully rolled out.”
FYI The mobile changes mentioned here are now fully rolled out. https://t.co/fTB3ia6LJ2
— John Mueller (official) · Not #30D (@JohnMu) May 12, 2016
Have you noticed changes to your mobile site? Maybe you have; perhaps you haven’t. If you have not experienced changes to your mobile site, you may not be doing everything you could to earn higher rankings.
SEO Inc. is here to help. Let us explain the Mobile May update and why it’s essential.
What Did the “Mobile May” Google Mobile Friendly Update Do?
Just a reminder, Google said the “Mobile May” mobile-friendly update would only affect mobile sites. So obviously, it would not affect desktop sites. Furthermore, the update would only increase rankings for places that hadn’t already gone mobile-friendly. The ranking boost would only be for areas that have recently gone mobile-friendly.
So, to sum up, the Mobile May update:
- It affects mobile sites only
- Desktop sites are unaffected
- It only affects mobile areas that were not previously mobile-friendly
Is Mobile-Friendly the Only Signal that Matters Anymore?
Short answer: not by a long shot. The Google Webmaster post back in March restated the importance of high-quality content as a ranking signal. “Great, relevant content” would still be worthy of ranking well, even if the site is not mobile-friendly.
You want your site to be mobile-friendly and a source of excellent, relevant content, and you want that not only for the increased Google rankings. Remember that the point of Google giving ranking boosts is to deliver quality results to users. Mobile-friendliness as a signal caters to the large percentage of search users on the go. To provide users with the best answers as quickly as possible, Google has given web admins another reason to make their sites fast and informative.
So yes, rankings are a nice bonus to the work required to go mobile-friendly. But offering a good user experience is the real goal here.
How to Build a Mobile Site That Ranks
Google has resources that can help support your mobile site. However, these tools are only helpful for sites that are mobile-friendly already. If yours is not mobile-friendly yet, you’re missing out on rankings, which means you’re ultimately missing out on visitors.
Give SEO Inc. a call. We can apply our years of experience in search engine optimization, web development, and content optimization to ensure your site has what it needs to succeed on the mobile front and get seen by users.
Don’t delay! Mobile May is here, and the time to get mobile-friendly has never been more critical.
