The past week Google gave some advice to webmasters on what mistakes to avoid when going mobile friendly, and the search giant addressed the search ranking fluctuations people have been seeing lately.
Full details about each of these top stories in this week’s SEO news roundup.
Latest SEO News – Week Ending 3/27/2015
Mistakes to Avoid When Going Mobile-Friendly
In an effort to guide site owners in the right direction before the upcoming mobile-friendly algorithm update, Google published a resource page this week on the most common mistakes to avoid when going mobile-friendly.
When compiling this list, Google asked its own webmaster community which issues they most often see when browsing “mobile-friendly” sites.
Here is an overview of some of the top mistakes people mentioned:
- Blocked JavaScript, CSS and image files: Always allow access to these files in your site’s robots.txt so Google can crawl them properly.
- Unplayable content: Make sure media on your site is playable on mobile devices.
- Faulty redirects: Don’t direct mobile users to desktop versions of your pages, and vice versa.
- Mobile-only 404s: If one of your pages doesn’t load on mobile devices, redirect it to a mobile-friendly page.
- App download interstitials: If your website prompts users with an app download, use a small HTML banner at the top of the page rather than having a large pop up.
- Slow mobile pages: To avoid user frustration, ensure your mobile pages load quickly. You can check your page speed with Google PageSpeed Insights.
For full information about any of the above mistakes, and how to avoid them, view the full guide here.
Google Says Recent Ranking Fluctuations Are Normal
Have you been noticing your search rankings moving around a lot lately? Is it getting you concerned? Not to worry — many have been seeing the same thing, and Google says everything is alright.
Starting around March 20th, site owners have been reporting to see their search rankings jumping up and down. This kind of activity sometimes indicates Google is testing out a new algorithm, which led many to believe the ranking fluctuations were a result of Google testing its new mobile-friendly algorithm,
Apparently that’s not the case at all. According to Google’s John Mueller in a recent Google+ Hangout, these changes are perfectly normal.
Mueller said the team at Google has been looking into these ranking changes since people across the web have been writing about it, but they’re not a result of any specific changes Google has made.
Reminder: Google’s Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Launches on April 21st
To keep this fresh in everyone’s mind, we’d like to remind you that a significant algorithm update is coming in just under a month that will affect how non-mobile friendly sites appear in search results.
For full information please see this post.
Wrapping it Up
Now we know the recent fluctuations in rankings are perfectly normal, at least for now, and Google shed some light on the top mistakes to avoid when converting your site to a mobile-friendly design.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s updates, please leave a comment and I will be sure to respond.
Pam Aungst
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