You have until April 21 to make sure your website is mobile-friendly. On that date, new algorithms from Google will rank mobile-friendly Web pages and apps more highly in search results on mobile devices. This week, at the SMX Munich conference, Google Webmaster Trends analyst Zineb Ait Bahajji announced that the mobile ranking update would have a bigger impact on Google search results than the Penguin and Panda updates, according to several reports.
As Digital Strategy Consulting reported, the analyst's claim at the conference was then retweeted by Gary Illyes, another Webmaster Trends analyst at Google.
Google is offering a guide to mobile-friendly sites to help webmasters adapt to the update. It's unclear if the update will also affect search results on non-mobile devices, but the overall message from Google is pretty clear: It is expanding its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. If you're a PR pro or marketer who doesn't rebuild websites in your spare time, now is the time to buy lunch for your web team.
Simon Heseltine, senior director-audience development for AOL, will lead a session on search engine optimization at PR News' Press Release Writing Boot Camp on April 21 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
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