The increase to Google’s mobile friendly algo ranking boost is now live in the search results. Pages that are mobile friendly will now receive an additional ranking boost in the mobile search results. This is the first time Google has increased the boost since the original one last year when the mobile friendly algo launched.
FYI The mobile changes mentioned here are now fully rolled out. https://t.co/fTB3ia6LJ2
— John Mueller (@JohnMu) May 12, 2016
Google previously announced in March that they were planning to ramp up the ranking boost in the mobile search results for all sites that are mobile friendly.
Worth noting is that Mueller mentions they are “fully rolled out”, likely meaning it was rolling out over the last few days, or even since the start of the month.
Nothing changes with this algo update aside from the signal being increased. So Google isn’t throwing any new signals into the mix. A Google spokesperson confirmed with The SEM Post that it is still a simple “yes” or “no” to whether a page gets the ranking boost. If an individual page is mobile friendly, it will get the ranking boost when someone searches from a mobile device. If a page is not mobile friendly, it won’t get the boost, meaning a page could rank higher on desktop but lose some of those rankings on mobile if the page isn’t mobile friendly.
Because there are no changes being made to the algo, it will not have an impact on pages using fake app interstitials. But sites with regular app interstitials will not get the boost
The mobile friendly boost applies on a page by page level. So if you are still working on going mobile friendly, you could make your most popular pages mobile friendly boost first. As soon as Google crawls the page and sees it is mobile friendly, the ranking boost is applied to the search results.
It isn’t known just how much the mobile friendly algo ranking boost is increasing, but according to Google, brands that are not mobile friendly don’t need to worry that competitors will outrank them for their brand name, as long as there are no other SEO issues impacting the site.
And remember, 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.
For more about the mobile friendly algo, see our guide on everything you need to know.
Jennifer Slegg
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