Google add the new ‘Mobile Friendly’ tag

These days, most people browsing the web find what they are looking for via a Google search. It has been well known for a number of years that if you want people to find your business, then you need to employ some sort of SEO strategy.

Recently though, another piece has arrived to be placed in the puzzle – research shows that most people now browse the web using their mobile phone.

This surge to mobile use seems to have been picked up by Google, who have now introduced a new tag, highlighting websites that are mobile friendly. They also said in a recent blog post that they are “experimenting with using the mobile-friendly criteria as a ranking signal”, meaning that having a responsive website design that works accross multiple devices is likely to become increasingly important.

So what exactly qualifies as “mobile friendly”? Well, the guidelines from Google say your website should

  • Avoid software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
  • Use text that is readable without zooming
  • Size content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
  • Place links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped

You can use the Mobile Firendly Test tool, to see how your website measures up against the new guidelines.

If your website is not currently meet the criteria, we recommend that you optimise it as soon as possible, to ensure you don’t start to slip down the search rankings and loose potential customers.