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For a while now, Google has been displaying a "mobile friendly" tag on results in the mobile serps that meet their critera for being friendly to smartphone / tablet users.
Now they've taken it a step further. If you're using Webmaster Tools, expect a message like this for sites which are geared toward desktop only:
(The bold text is mine.)
The message goes on to advise of steps you can take to alleviate the problem.
It's somewhat interesting that in my entire account they only flagged one site which doesn't get much traffic to begin with ... not sure why that site triggered the message while several others did not (yet?)...
Note that being able to "pinch and zoom" does NOT make your site count as mobile friendly. They are giving the label to sites which are responsive or have a separate mobile version.
How important is this to address? How much of your traffic now and in the recent past is mobile? On most of the sites I monitor, it's well over 50%. Even though it's (currently) just plain gray text, that little "mobile friendly" label is definitely noticeable when I do a search from my phone ...
Now they've taken it a step further. If you're using Webmaster Tools, expect a message like this for sites which are geared toward desktop only:
To: webmaster of YourDomainName.tld
Google systems have tested xx pages from your site and found that 100% of them have critical mobile usability errors. The errors on these xx pages severely affect how mobile users are able to experience your website. These pages will not be seen as mobile-friendly by Google Search, and will therefore be displayed and ranked appropriately for smartphone users.
(The bold text is mine.)
The message goes on to advise of steps you can take to alleviate the problem.
It's somewhat interesting that in my entire account they only flagged one site which doesn't get much traffic to begin with ... not sure why that site triggered the message while several others did not (yet?)...
Note that being able to "pinch and zoom" does NOT make your site count as mobile friendly. They are giving the label to sites which are responsive or have a separate mobile version.
How important is this to address? How much of your traffic now and in the recent past is mobile? On most of the sites I monitor, it's well over 50%. Even though it's (currently) just plain gray text, that little "mobile friendly" label is definitely noticeable when I do a search from my phone ...