Google updates search formula to favor mobile-friendly sites

A major change this week in Google’s dominant search algorithm might signal that the tech giant sees mobile devices rather than desktop computers as the future of internet searches.

On Tuesday, Google released an update to its search criteria that gives priority to websites that have been optimized for viewing and interaction on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets.

“Today’s the day we begin globally rolling out our mobile-friendly update,” Google announced in a blog post. “Now searchers can more easily find high-quality and relevant results where text is readable without tapping or zooming, tap targets are spaced appropriately, and the page avoids unplayable content or horizontal scrolling.”

The update only affects searches done on mobile devices and applies to individual web pages, not entire websites. In other words, website developers don’t have to revamp an entire website. Even a single mobile-friendly page will help boost its ranking.

Although mobile-friendly criteria now have more weight in searches, Google says it has not neglected the fundamental purpose of a search, to find content matching the user’s search string.

“The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal,” Google said on its blog, “so even if a page with high quality content is not mobile-friendly, it could still rank high if it has great content for the query.”

Google’s search update comes at a time when more people are using mobile devices rather than traditional desktop computers to conduct searches. Tech website CNET referenced a report by research firm ComScore that found mobile devices generate around 60 percent of online traffic. During last year’s Christmas shopping season, nearly 60 percent of Amazon customers used mobile devices to make purchases.

Long the dominant search engine for desktop and laptop users, Google has struggled to retain a share in the lucrative mobile search market, where advertising drives its revenue stream. Google’s mobile search revenue market share dropped to 68 percent in 2014, down from 83 percent just two years earlier, according to CNET.

The change also comes at a time when the company is under pressure from the European Union. In a statement last week, the EU accused Google of abusing “its dominant position in the markets for general internet search services in the European Economic Area by systematically favoring its own comparison-shopping product in its general search results pages.”

Google’s shift to prioritizing mobile-friendly sites puts pressure on businesses that rely on high search rankings to drive sales and revenue. According to USA Today, Forrester Research reported that only 38 percent of all enterprise websites (sites for businesses with at least 1,000 employees) are optimized for mobile search.

Google seems to be encouraging their business customers to make the mobile-friendly shift by providing tools and guidance. Companies can check individual web pages or even their entire website by taking a mobile-friendly test on Google’s website or consulting its mobile usability report in webmaster tools.

In its blog announcement, Google made clear it’s willing to help those businesses who want to move forward, but laid out the consequences of failing to do so: “If your site’s pages aren’t mobile-friendly, there may be a significant decrease in mobile traffic from Google search. But have no fear, once your site becomes mobile-friendly, we will automatically reprocess (i.e., crawl and index) your pages.”