Starting from today, April 21, 2015 Google will expand their ‘use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal’. That means that websites which are not mobile-friendly will have a lower ranking on search engines while websites that pass Google’s mobile-friendly test will profit from the updated search algorithms of Google and will appear more prominently and rank higher in Google search engines.
In the past Google has always been making updates to make sure a site is ‘confirmed properly’ and is ‘viewable on modern devices.’ On February, 26 Google began using all indexed apps’ information as ‘a factor in ranking for signed-in users who have the app installed’. This change was made to help users get more relevant and high-quality app content that is mobile-friendly in search results.
According to a Google blog post, “when it comes to search on mobile devices, users should get the most relevant and timely results, no matter if the information lives on mobile-friendly web pages or apps. As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns.”
Google’s new update, which will have a worldwide impact in mobile search results, is one of the factors that affect how well a website ranks in search engines. Text size, the amount of space between different links and whether a website’s content fits across a mobile screen are some of the criteria that will be taken into consideration.
"As people increasingly search on their mobile devices, we want to make sure they can find content that's not only relevant and timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens," said a Google representative.
About a week ago, Margrethe Vestager, European Union competition commissioner, filed a complaint against Google after European Union websites’ home page failed Google’s mobile-friendly test. “Sections of sites owned by the European Union, the BBC and Wikipedia currently fail the search giant's Mobile Friendly Test developer tool,” according to a BBC technology reporter.
BBC’s mobile users will be soon redirected to a new official website by BBC, m.bbc.co.uk, which is mobile friendly and has passed the Google test.
"This move by Google should send a message to companies whose websites are poorly configured for smartphone users that optimizing for mobile is no longer a matter of choice," said Kevin Dallas, chief product officer at global payment processor Worldpay eCommerce.
Google is also helping various websites to meet mobile-friendly criteria by offering developer tools. You can take the test here: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/get-started/ and also check the new Google guidelines on their official blog here: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html