Today Google announced the launch of a mobile-friendly test tool to see if your website passes Google’s criteria for what it consider to be a mobile optimized site.
In case you’re wondering why it’s important to meet Google’s mobile-friendly criteria, it’s because they’re adding a “mobile-friendly” label in its search results next to sites that pass this criteria.
Since this is a brand new addition, there’s no way to know how it will affect click-through rate, but I think it’s a safe bet that mobile searchers are going to visit a page labeled “mobile-friendly” before visiting a page without that label.
Here’s another big reason why it’s important for your site to meet Google’s criteria — it may impact your rankings:
We see these labels as a first step in helping mobile users to have a better mobile web experience. We are also experimenting with using the mobile-friendly criteria as a ranking signal.
With that being the case, you could potentially be turning away mobile visitors and/or be ranked down in mobile search by not meeting Google’s criteria. This change will be rolled out globally over the next few weeks, so don’t worry, you still have time to get your site up to speed.
What does Google consider to be a mobile-friendly site? Here’s a list of criteria:
- Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
- Uses text that is readable without zooming
- Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
- Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped
If all of that applies to your site, then a “mobile-friendly” label is most likely in your future. If you’re not sure if it applies, take Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool for a spin.
Here’s what it looks like in action:
Woohoo, we passed!If your site doesn’t pass the test, the tool will point out exactly why you didn’t pass and give you some steps to follow to correct the issues.
The tool is currently only available in english, but will be rolled out worldwide over the next few weeks.
