On April 21st, Google is introducing it’s new mobile-friendly rank signal in all search results. What that means is that Google is trying to return the fastest, most optimized results for all devices — mobile included. And that’s a good thing.
What Google’s mobile friendly search results mean for you
Your website must be mobile friendly. How do you ensure that your website is mobile friendly?
1. Think responsive
Some people still think it’s a good idea to serve two different versions of the same website, one for mobile devices and one for desktop devices, from different directories and URLs. Ever visted a website and ended up at:
http://m.website.com
http://www.website.com
m was most likely the mobile version of the website, using duplicated content in a different subdirectory on the server.
That’s not good enough anymore. Google recommends that you use responsive design now. That means, serve up the same website to all viewers on all devices and adapt your content to fit the screen size. According to Google this method is best because it makes sharing easier, saves resources, reduces the margin for error, and reduces website load time among other things.
2. Test for mobile friendly search
Use Google’s mobile-friendly test to check if your site is mobile friendly.
The good news is that if you’ve designed your website using Headway Themes, chances are you’ve built your entire site to be mobile friendly.
3. Refine your website regularly
The best thing I can tell you is to always test, refine, and repeat. Your website viewer’s devices will always change and so should your website. It’s never a case of set it and forget it.
Pay close attention to who is visiting your website and on what devices so that you can optimize their experience.
You can do this by watching your analytics, specifically the Audience > Technology > Browser & OS report:
The Audience > Mobile > Overview report:
and the Audience > Mobile > Devices report:
More information for those of you who wanna get geeky:
Google Developer’s Guide to Mobile Friendly Websites.
The Offical Statement from Google on Mobile Friendly Search rank
Google’s Mobile Friendly Search Test