FAQ’s about Google’s Mobile Friendly Update – What You Need to know!

With the recent Google update, it’s important you know exactly what to expect when things start rolling out on April 21st, 2015. Over the last several weeks, I’ve received a lot of emails from my subscribers, asking me about this update and what will be affected. Many of them are NOT mobile ready and they are afraid they’ll be losing value in the SERP’s but you have to be clear about the update to know what will change. I decided to put a list of questions together and their answers below so you get a better idea of the mobile update and what to expect. Out of all the questions, I’ve only posted the MOST popular questions and those that will make you understand the changes.

Let’s get started…

When is the update being released?

Google announced several weeks ago that the update will be released on April 21st, 2015. If you visit the Google website and Twitter account, they have confirmed it will indeed be released tomorrow.

Who will this update IMPACT?

You have to know who this update will impact to start making the necessary changes. So far, the changes will be impacting search results on mobile phones. This means if you’re a mobile user and conduct a search through your phone, you’ll be able to see mobile friendly websites. Google will reward those blogs and sites that are mobile friendly with higher rankings within the SERP’s. It’s important again to reiterate the change will ONLY affect searches done on mobile phones.

How about Desktop PC searches…will they be impacted?

If a search is done on a desktop PC, then the results will appear as they’ve always appeared. Your rankings will NOT be affected when searches are done using a desktop PC. The search results will appear as always because this is NOT a mobile platform and the update doesn’t impact this type of browsing platform.

How about searches done on tablets?

The update will NOT be impacting searches performed by people on tablet devices. This update ONLY affects mobile searches performed and those websites NOT mobile friendly.

Is the change site wide or only affecting specific pages?

There has been a lot of confusion regarding this question and hopefully, I can shed some light on the changes. The update will affect websites on a page-by-page basis, which is amazing for those bloggers with some mobile friendly pages for the time being. Google has always ranked web page individually and this will NOT change after the update. If you have some pages that are mobile friendly, then you’ll still be able to rank high for those keywords and corresponding pages. However, those pages that are NOT mobile friendly will be affected by the change until they are responsive with the correct changes made.

After making changes, how long will it take to see the difference?

I recently wrote a blog post on tweaking your website and how it’s important to start shifting to a mobile responsive theme. Once you’ve made the changes, it can take anywhere from a few hours to 72 hours for Google to pick up on the changes. There are some other factors that will determine rate of indexing, like, for example:

  • If everything is done right when redesigning theme
  • How large your website is…how many pages and categories
  • How often content is refreshed on your blog
  • Link building campaign

Once you’ve made the changes, go through the list, making immediate changes to the elements you have control over.

Will Google News, Local Results, In the News, Videos, be impacted by this algorithm?

From what the experts are saying, no other type of search results will be effected by the update. This means Google News and others will NOT be changing the way search results appear in the mobile SERP’s. To answer the question, only mobile CORE search results will be impacted by the update on April 21st, 2015.

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