Google Mobile Friendly Algorithm a Week Later: What We’ve Learned Thus Far

Last week, Google released an algorithm designed to give a boost to mobile-friendly pages in their mobile search results. Companies who have kept their websites up to date with mobile had nothing to sweat about, but others had to act quickly to get their sites aligned with Google’s impending algorithm, with less than two months’ notice. Some even went as far to call it “Mobilegeddon“.

Many weren’t sure what to expect at first, and then many folks weren’t even sure that the new algorithm went into effect on April 21st. However, Google did confirm that the algorithm started rolling out last Tuesday but said that it may “be a week or so before it makes its way to all pages in the index,” and so far we’ve barely seen any changes. Dr. Peter Meyers, cognitive psychologist and resident Marketing Scientist at Moz, has been keeping a log tracking the mobile search results rankings for a set of top keywords in what he calls “Mobile MozCast“. His findings show that there was a small spike on April 22nd, but nothing significant.

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According to Meyers,

Even before April 21st, a surprisingly high number of the URLs we track carried the “Mobile-friendly” tag. We don’t have a lot of historical data, but the low point was around 66.3% (on April 8th). That number has steadily crept up since then, but it’s unclear whether this is an algorithmic change, data being updated by Google, or sites being updated last-minute to be more mobile friendly. Please note that the Y-axis on this graph is restricted (50-75%) to help better visualize the gradual increase over time.”

If there are going to be any major changes, we’ll likely start to see them in the next couple of weeks. We will update you if and when we notice any changes.