A few months ago we reported that Google will be updating their mobile friendly algorithm in May 2016.
Google's John Mueller today confirmed on Twitter that this algorithm has now been fully rolled out and is live in the mobile Google search results. John said "FYI The mobile changes mentioned here are now fully rolled out."
FYI The mobile changes mentioned here are now fully rolled out. https://t.co/fTB3ia6LJ2
— John Mueller (@JohnMu) May 12, 2016
Just to be clear, I am very confident that this has absolutely nothing to do with the tools saying there is an update because those tools primarily check desktop only results, including Mozcast. Thus, the mobile friendly algorithm only impacts mobile results and these tools only track desktop.
This mobile friendly update should "increases the effect" of mobile friendly pages being ranked a bit higher. Just to repeat the two other points from the March announcement on this:
(1) "If you've already made your site mobile-friendly, you will not be impacted by this update." Will you not benefit more from this update if they are boosting the signal? Or maybe the change will only have a negative impact on pages that are not mobile friendly?
(2) "The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal - so even if a page with high quality content is not mobile-friendly, it could still rank well if it has great, relevant content." So non-mobile friendly pages can and will still rank, if the query deserves it.
The first mobile friendly algorithm launched on April 21st of last year.
Did any of you notice any traffic changes to the mobile version of your site or more referrals via mobile devices?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
