If you hate landing on a website that hasn’t been optimised for mobile browsers as much as we do, then you will be extremely happy to know that Google has (once again) tweaked the way it presents search results in a mobile browser.
Since the tweak went live, when you search Google on a mobile phone, you will now see a little grey tag next to websites whose developers have taken the extra time to optimise them for mobile browsers.
“Starting today, to make it easier for people to find the information that they’re looking for, we’re adding a ‘mobile-friendly’ label to our mobile search results. This change will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks,” Google explained on its blog.
Google could use the change to serve mobile-friendly search results first, followed by results for regular websites in future.
“We see these labels as a first step in helping mobile users to have a better mobile web experience. We are also experimenting with using the mobile-friendly criteria as a ranking signal,” it said.
Google also outlined the criteria that websites need to adhere to in order to be ranked as mobile-friendly:
- Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
- Uses text that is readable without zooming
- Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
- Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped
Should you want more information, head over to Google’s Webmaster Help Forum.
[Source – Google]
