Major algorithm updates get every webmaster’s attention. Most of the algorithm updates come without any warning or they are somewhat vague. However, starting on April 21st, Google announced that they will be expanding everyone’s use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. Such change will definitely affect mobile searches in all languages around the world and will have a significant impact on every search result.
WooExpert Mobile-Friendly Image
Mobilegeddon- What Google Has Been Preparing For Google may have already announced the update earlier, but it hasn’t been forthcoming with the details.
Update Preparation- Google has been telling every webmaster around the world to prepare for mobile for many years now. It’s all because of the announcement of the Mobile Search update. Many webmasters already have their compelling reason to take action. In case you find yourself scrambling to be a mobile-friendly website and cannot decide between a responsible or dedicated mobile design, it only makes sense for you to weight down the benefits and drawbacks prior to making any decision.
Customization- creating a separate website for the mobile-users, simply lets you optimize it for every mobile user. The mobile websites might only have lesser contents, different systems for navigation, and/or other unique options for the mobile setup. All of the work in making a website mobile-friendly is done on the server and by a skilled web designer.
Design- the mobile designs are simple to build and they are economical in terms of development cost. Responsive websites are far more complicated to build, having higher upfront costs as well. The so-called lifetime cost is one of the most important considerations here.
SEO- Most of the mobile websites are built on sub-domain. If you want to go to that route, keep in mind that you should use a canonical tag that will point to the desktop URL for duplicate mobile pages. This will surely resolve any sort of potential duplicate content issues. Keep in mind that you should not put canonical tags on the unique mobile content. Both desktop and mobile pages could surely rank for reasonable phrases. Responsive websites don’t need any special SEO deliberation beyond the normal practices.
Pros and Cons of Mobile Sites
The Pros:
Mobile sites can be easily customized for the mobile users
Has to be the most mobile-friendly version of the website
Inexpensive and easier to design
The Cons:
There’s this recurring maintenance
Higher costs for updating the content of different websites
Reworking needed for the future browsers
Non-convertible
April 21st is, so far, the biggest date for every webmaster to remember. This will be the Google update that seems to be the biggest change in terms of a mobile-related algorithm that everyone has seen. However, it truly depends on what your website is focused on and what you have to do. So, make your website user-friendly, relevant, and helpful and you’ll have the chance to rank in the organic search of Google, regardless of your website type. If you don’t have any mobile version of your website by the 21st of April, your visibility will surely be hindered.
