Sites may be affected Google's algorithm update

March 29, 2015 by Paul Byrne


Google has been warning us about this for a while, but, it looks like they are finally going to implement their mobile-friendly ratings system. Actually, Google sees the world in black and white when it comes to mobile friendliness… your site is either mobile friendly, or it is not. There is no extra credit for creating the ultimate mobile experience…. nor will there be any A’s for effort. This is the basis for Google’s algorithm update.

You either pass their test or you don’t.

Fortunately, it is on a page-by-page basis. So, if you have a few pages on your site where you broke your responsive design with an embed or improperly-sized image, the rest of your page rankings will be unaffected. Unfortunately, SEO experts are expecting Google to implement even more sweeping changes to rankings than past algorithm updates based on their assessment of your site.

Razoyo will be testing our client base to make sure their sites comply and offering solutions if they don’t. The roll out of Google’s new service won’t take place until at least April 21, 2015. This gives ample time to employ remedies.

Here are some must do’s before the change hits:

    - [Test your site](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/) for mobile friendliness. - If you are using a [responsive design](https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/configurations/responsive-design), add a meta viewport tag to signal as much to the browsers. - Make sure your javascript and css files are not blocked by your robots.txt file. - If you are using a dynamic serving setup, make sure you have implemented a [Vary HTTP](https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/configurations/dynamic-serving) header. Example: your web site serves different HTML files based on the browser and/or device browsing it - If you are using different URLs for your sites, be sure to include the appropriate [rel alternate and rel canonical links](https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/configurations/separate-urls). Example: m.yoursite.com

If you have a site and none of this makes sense to you, contact us!

Subscribe to our newsletter for regular community updates, case studies, and more.