How Will Your Website Fare with Google’s Changes?

Have you noticed that visits to your website have dropped off recently?

If you haven't made changes to keep your site Google-friendly, you may have to make some adjustments to guarantee your spot in clients' Search results from their mobile device.

In late February, Google announced it would make changes to its ranking signal for mobile devices, based on a website's "mobile-friendliness" and information from indexed apps. The changes went into effect April 21.

According to Google's Webmaster Central blog, "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."

What does this mean for your website? Google's webmasters summarize what these changes are, and how to prepare your website for them.

More mobile-friendly websites in search results
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.

• To get help with making a mobile-friendly site, check out our guide to mobile-friendly sites. If you're a webmaster, you can get ready for this change by using the following tools to see how Googlebot views your pages:
• If you want to test a few pages, you can use the Mobile-Friendly Test.
• If you have a site, you can use your Webmaster Tools account to get a full list of mobile usability issues across your site using the Mobile Usability Report.

More relevant app content in search results
Starting in late February, we will begin to use information from indexed apps as a factor in ranking for signed-in users who have the app installed. As a result, we may now surface content from indexed apps more prominently in search. To find out how to implement App Indexing, which allows us to surface this information in search results, have a look at our step-by-step guide on the developer site.

If your website needs updating in order to accommodate these changes, Google's Webmaster Help Forum may be of assistance.