Mobile-Friendly To Be A Google Ranking Factor on April 21st 2015

Is it true that Google will effectively penalise mobile-unfriendly sites from April 21, 2015? It would appear so according to Google….

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. In the past, we’ve made updates to ensure a site is configured properly and viewable on modern devices. We’ve made it easier for users to find mobile-friendly web pages and we’ve introduced App Indexing to surface useful content from apps. Today, we’re announcing two important changes to help users discover more mobile-friendly content:

Google is sending mass notifications to webmasters who has websites that are not mobile-friendly. These notifications contain the subject “fix mobile usability issues found on…

Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.

See https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html

Mobile friendly sites have enjoyed a bit of a ranking boost for quite some time being that mobile friendliness has been one of the factors. However, this announcement just means that the metric for such will be a bit stronger. Nothing more.

Will your website penalised in the Google search results if I have not made the website mobile friendly before April 21st?

Google may not class it as a “penalty”, but yes the effect is the same. In mobile searches, mobile-friendly sites will rise up the ranks, meaning that non-friendly sites will by definition be placed lower. Considering 40% of all web traffic is mobile based, if your rankings vanish from searches on mobile devices you are

This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.

Essentially if you’re site isn’t mobile friendly, in view of the fact mobile accounts for 40% of traffic, you are likely to see a significant drop in traffic of their algorithm works as intended and your site isn’t responsive.