If you haven’t heard already Google are making massive changes to their mobile search algorithm on the 21st April 2015. If you don’t have a mobile friendly website you will be punished by Google in the mobile search results meaning that less job seekers being able to find and access your website and jobs!
Past Google algorithm changes in the past have always led to winners and loser in the rankings. However, for this important mobile search algorithm change the clear losers will be those who don’t have a mobile friendly website.
Here are some of the implications from the changes:
- By not having a mobile-friendly website Google will lower the SEO ranking of your website in the mobile search results.
- By not offering a mobile-friendly version of your website (or misconfiguring your website) it will result in a demotion within their mobile search rankings.
How To Check If Your Website Is Mobile Friendly
Google have put together a free tool so you can check to see how mobile-friendly your website is. You simply insert your website address and they will show you the result together with how your website looks on a smart phone.
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
Mobile Friendly Test Results
Here is the result for our site – https://www.web-based-recruitment.com
Mobile Search Results
Another way of checking is when searching on a mobile you will now start to see “Mobile-Friendly” before the website description if it passes Google’s mobile test.
Free Guide
Google have also put together a free guide to help people get ready for mobile:
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/
Impact And Loss
With the amount of job seekers using mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) increasing all the time it is clear that mobile is here to stay. Figures of 30% to 50% of traffic being mobile are not uncommon anymore.
The only difference now is for companies who have avoided offering mobile-friendly websites in the past (and hoping to get away with it) Google’s changes will now have an impact on them. And that impact could well lead to employers missing out on great candidates and recruitment agencies/staffing firms losing potential placement fees..
Written by Mike Taylor
Mike Taylor is Managing Director of Web Based Recruitment, specialists in Recruitment Videos, Recruitment Events and organisers of the Global Mobile Recruitment Awards.
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