Google Mobile Algorithm update
-
Hi there,
On April the 21st Google seems to going to update their Mobile algorithm. I have a few questions about this one.
- Our current mobile website is very mobile friendly.
- We block all mobile pages with a noindex, so the desktop pages have been indexed on mobile devices.
- We use a redirect from desktop page to mobile page when someone hits a result on a mobile device.
My gut tells me this is not April 21st-proof so I'm thinking about an update to make this whole thing adaptive. By making the thing adaptive, our mobile pages will be indexed instead of the desktop pages. Two questions:
- Will Google treat the mobile page as a 100% different page than the desktop page? Or will it match those two because everything will tell Google those belong together. In other words: will the mobile page start with a zero authority and will pages lose good organic positions because of authority or not?
- Which ranking factor will be stronger after April 21st for mobile pages: page authority or mobile friendliness? In other words: is it worth ignoring the 21 April update because the authority of the desktop pages is more important than making every page super mobile friendly?
Hope to get some good advice!
Marcel
-
Hi Dirk,
That sounds great. Thanks for your help, I am going for action on this solution.
Marcel
-
Marcel
with this setup Google considers your mobile site as the mobile view of your desktop site so in terms of authority it should not have an impact on authority. Most sites we have in this setup have same rankings for mobile & desktop searches.
rgds
Dirk
-
Hi DC1611 & Matt-POP,
Thank you very much for your response. This one is clear to me, I have exactly 1 month to fix this. Mobile traffic plays a big part in our daily revenue so this is serious.
@Matt-POP: your advice is to go for responsive but I rather go for a canonical/ adaptive solution because a responsive website is not really an option (causes lots of other 'challenges'). Would you also advice to go for the canonical/adaptive way? The idea to exchange links in the source between mobile and desktop. Is will look like this:
The bold parts will be filled in dynamically.
So again (@DC1611): will the mobile page receive (some of) the page authority of the desktop version this way?Tnx again.
Marcel -
Your gut is right. If you are blocking your "very mobile friendly" pages to Googlebot-mobile you will likely end up with a big mess. If your desktop site is NOT responsive and is indexed for many terms on mobile, I would think you're going to lose those terms.
If you ignore the April 21 update and have a desktop-only site indexed you are definitely going to up for a traffic drop, especially from mobile.
We have clients with 1-3% mobile (industrial services, crane hire, that stuff) and those with 50%+ mobile (a few beauty salons, ecommerce stores, etc.) and I've been telling our clients internally - if you have 3-5% mobile traffic look, it's probably not the end of the world if it takes you until June 1st to make the switch. If you have 20-30% mobile traffic, get it fixed asap. And if you're over 30% mobile traffic you absolutely cannot afford not to have a responsive site up by April 21st. So it's a priority - but how much of one may depend on your business.
-
Blocking your mobile pages for indexing is not the best strategy if you have a dedicated mobile site. Better to use canonicals to point to the main domain - full explanation on "how to" here: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/configurations/separate-urls
With this setup - Google associates both Mobile & Desktop version - so in terms of page authority this should be equal. I would not ignore the 21st April date- Google is trying to make a point here - so for mobile searches mobile friendliness will be first priority.
rgds,
Dirk
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google's Better Ads Chrome update: will it affect email pop-ups?
Chrome will be blocking ads on websites that are not compliant with the Better Ads standards as of Feb 15. Could not find any clues whether a pop-up (not an ad) asking for your email is included in this? We currently have a pop-up that appears on exit intent only (which is not penalized). Any ideas?
Algorithm Updates | | ati10 -
Does Google push down for not ranking top for branded keywords?
Hi all, Usually websites rank for their branded keywords. Some times third party websites takeover the websites for branded keywords. If there are more number of such queries where website is not ranking (top) for branded keywords, Google push down website in overall rankings? Any correlation? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Using Google to find a discontinued product.
Hi Guys. I mostly use this forum for business questions, but now it's a personal one! I'm trying to find a supplier that might still have discontinued product. It's the Behritone C5A speaker monitor. All my searches bring up a plethora of pages that appear to sell the product... but they have no stock. (Wouldn't removing these pages make for a better internet?) No 2nd hand ones on eBay 😞 Do you have any suggestion about how I can get more relevant results... i.e find supplier that might still have stock? Any tips or trick I may be able to use to help me with this? Many thanks in advance to an awesome community 🙂 Isaac.
Algorithm Updates | | isaac6631 -
Google domain search
Hello all, I'm a newbie to SEO, so you'll have to bear with me. I just started a website LangleyHomeSaerch.com a few months ago and am having trouble ranking with google. When I search "Langley Home Search" with Yahoo or Bing, it comes up on the first page. However when I search it with google it doesn't seem to rank even in the first few hundred pages. The only way I can get a match from google is if I search "Langley HomeSearch" or "LangleyHomeSearch". I know due to google's newer algorithms that there is less importance put on domain name matches, but is this normal, or is there anything I can do to improve it? Thx, Colby Langley, BC
Algorithm Updates | | colbygedak0 -
How to follow up Google search in a Joomla website
Hello ! I'm facing a stupid issue but cannot solve it. Google Analytics can track the seach into a website. When I try to activate it I need to add some more parameters that I do not know. http://awesomescreenshot.com/03f1bnau8d Has anyone ever tried to configure Google analytics search for a Joomla website ? Tks a lot !
Algorithm Updates | | AymanH0 -
Any Google Panda/Penguin, etc updates late October 2012?
Not sure why my website traffic is dropping down late Oct 12. It showed a boost with the last Panda update in early Oct. Anyone know of a current update?
Algorithm Updates | | ChrisTS0 -
Google and Wikipedia
Ok, I love Wikipedia as much as the next guy but the amount of weight that google puts on this site is getting crazy. My search terms that I am going after are "speakers" and "loudspeakers" Can somebody tell me why wikipedia needs the top 8 -10 spots for those terms? is that really a good search result for users of google? More of a rant then a question I know. I just needed to get that off my chest!.
Algorithm Updates | | kevin48030 -
Did Google Just Punish Organic For Showing Up In Local?
Google pushed the local search results in a prominent spot on a ton of search results. That means (for me) that all first page rankings (including a lot of 1st place rankings) have completely disappeared. Subfolders still rank and homepage still ranks where local search is not included. This is weird. Is this a glitch or is there something we can do about this?
Algorithm Updates | | Discountvc0