Register Advertise with usHelp Desk Today's Posts Search

Closed Thread
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Unread 7th Feb 2012, 04:47 PM   #1
You figure it out
War Room Member
 
mott's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2007
Location: Illinois
Posts: 173
Thanks: 46
Thanked 21 Times in 17 Posts
Default
Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Hi

I heard something from someone today that Google will eventually start penalizing sites that are non mobile-friendly. Like if they are ranked on page 1, they will drop to page 50 or something if they are not mobile friendly.

I want to know if that is true, and if so, does anyone know of any link to a Google page or video where this can be confirmed? Some official statement by Google, does that exist on the web anywhere?

Thanks!

Rich
mott is offline  
Unread 7th Feb 2012, 06:22 PM   #2
Digital Marketer
War Room Member
 
WillR's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 12,475
Thanks: 1,984
Thanked 8,187 Times in 4,079 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

I do not think it will be this cut and dry. They won't start penalizing normal websites but they will probably start giving favor to mobile optimized websites but ONLY if the user searching is on a mobile device.

Obviously a mobile site is not ideal for a PC user so it is definitely going to depend on the type of device the person is using as to what type of search results they see.

WillR is offline  
The Following User Says Thank You to WillR For This Useful Post:
Unread 7th Feb 2012, 06:31 PM   #3
Warrior Member
 
Join Date: 2010
Posts: 25
Thanks: 3
Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Nah, I'm pretty sure it's not gonna "penalize" them as set up an automatic or manual penalty, more like add one more filter to the algo. Like bounce rate or site loading time etc. But they are getting more focused on on-site lately, that's for sure
+ if you have a WP site you can turn it into a mobile site with just one plugin.
bulldogzg is offline  
Unread 7th Feb 2012, 06:43 PM   #4
Digital Marketer
War Room Member
 
WillR's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 12,475
Thanks: 1,984
Thanked 8,187 Times in 4,079 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Originally Posted by bulldogzg View Post

Nah, I'm pretty sure it's not gonna "penalize" them as set up an automatic or manual penalty, more like add one more filter to the algo. Like bounce rate or site loading time etc. But they are getting more focused on on-site lately, that's for sure
+ if you have a WP site you can turn it into a mobile site with just one plugin.
Just be careful when using Wordpress plugins for mobile websites as they are usually going to be much slower than a clean HTML mobile website. The recent tool Google developed that allows people to test how their site looks on mobile phone has a speed tester built in as well. This tells me that speed is going to be a BIG factor when Google are determining whether or not a site is mobile friendly. This is definitely one reason to be very careful in using any Wordpress solutions for mobile websites.

WillR is offline  
The Following User Says Thank You to WillR For This Useful Post:
Unread 9th Feb 2012, 11:47 PM   #5
Warrior Member
 
Join Date: 2010
Location: USA
Posts: 20
Thanks: 3
Thanked 9 Times in 7 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

I think WillR hit the nail on the head. Normal web sites won't be penalized, but mobile web sites will receive preferential treatment if the search is coming from a mobile device. It seems to be true there are 'Mobile-specific' bots out there crawling the web for mobile-enabled web sites.

Top 10 SEO
SEO Company
Top10SEO is offline  
Unread 9th Feb 2012, 11:51 PM   #6
Digital Marketer
War Room Member
 
WillR's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 12,475
Thanks: 1,984
Thanked 8,187 Times in 4,079 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Originally Posted by Top10SEO View Post

It seems to be true there are 'Mobile-specific' bots out there crawling the web for mobile-enabled web sites.
There sure is. Google announced their Google Mobile Bot at the end of last year:

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Introducing smartphone Googlebot-Mobile

WillR is offline  
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to WillR For This Useful Post:
Unread 10th Feb 2012, 12:46 AM   #7
Active Warrior
War Room Member
 
Join Date: 2009
Location: Beautiful American South
Posts: 86
Thanks: 165
Thanked 79 Times in 50 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

WillR is right and thanks for the link. I've seen Google results already showing a green mobile phone for Google Places listings with mobile friendly websites. The search engines will start "favoring" mobile friendly business listings (w/mobile site links) for organic and Google Places. It just makes sense and Google has said it's moving in that direction.
Anyone in marketing who's not guiding prospects and clients to use mobile-responsive sites, SMS, QR Codes, and other mobile-friendly tactics is missing revenue for themselves and for their clients.
BarbaraP is offline  
Unread 10th Feb 2012, 07:50 AM   #8
Mobile+WP = JumpMobi.com
War Room Member
 
Jay Moreno's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2009
Location: San Antonio, Tx
Posts: 1,270
Thanks: 301
Thanked 449 Times in 309 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Originally Posted by BarbaraP View Post

WillR is right and thanks for the link. I've seen Google results already showing a green mobile phone for Google Places listings with mobile friendly websites. The search engines will start "favoring" mobile friendly business listings (w/mobile site links) for organic and Google Places. It just makes sense and Google has said it's moving in that direction.
Anyone in marketing who's not guiding prospects and clients to use mobile-responsive sites, SMS, QR Codes, and other mobile-friendly tactics is missing revenue for themselves and for their clients.
@BarbaraP what search criteria are you using and device are you using to see the green handsets on the google place listings? Wondering if its a regional thing as we are not seeing that?

The green mobile listings that i have seen have been around for a few years now and are part of the regular organic listings - these related to valid mobile sites, that have been crawled by the older non smartphone google mobilebots and are only visible in the the non smartphone search portal for google... most smartphones do not use this search portal so do not see those green mobile handset identifies.

Additionally there seems to be zero relevance on sites with those green icons been ranked any higher than those without...

With the new smartphone google mobile bot i would hope that google goes someone to identify to the end user that a site does have a mobile equivalent in the same way it does on google search for non smartphones - i.e. www.google.com/m

Hope that helps,

Cheers,

Jay

Sorry, I am too busy helping people to think of a cool signature!
Jay Moreno is offline  
Unread 10th Feb 2012, 10:46 AM   #9
Warrior Member
War Room Member
 
Join Date: 2011
Location: WebLand
Posts: 22
Thanks: 1
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

I think google will not penalize non-mobile-friendly sites. The website will lower the revenue and exposure themselves by losing potential mobile visitors. As of now mobile users are more in number than pc users.
Favion is offline  
Unread 13th Feb 2012, 12:28 PM   #10
Warrior Member
 
Join Date: 2012
Posts: 17
Thanks: 5
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Google may reduced the ranking of such websites as nowadays Google is interested more on the user experience.
regenesis is offline  
Unread 13th Feb 2012, 01:54 PM   #11
HyperActive Warrior
War Room Member
 
Madam X's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2010
Location: USA
Posts: 110
Thanks: 37
Thanked 78 Times in 68 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Originally Posted by Favion View Post

I think google will not penalize non-mobile-friendly sites. The website will lower the revenue and exposure themselves by losing potential mobile visitors. As of now mobile users are more in number than pc users.
Google won't blatantly penalize non-mobile friendly websites. As more and more customers review websites from their phones - more than their computers, the website itself will lose visitors and thus lose their Google rankings. It's a slow but certain death.

Also, those WP mobile plug-ins DO slow the site down. Customers won't put up with that & they'll quickly click on a site that's faster.
Madam X is offline  
Unread 27th Feb 2012, 02:59 PM   #12
Mobile+WP = JumpMobi.com
War Room Member
 
Jay Moreno's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2009
Location: San Antonio, Tx
Posts: 1,270
Thanks: 301
Thanked 449 Times in 309 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Originally Posted by Madam X View Post

Also, those WP mobile plug-ins DO slow the site down. Customers won't put up with that & they'll quickly click on a site that's faster.
That's not strictly true - we are developing our own custom WP mobile plugins and they in no way slow down access to the mobile site, in fact we have designed our framework to specifically increase rendering speed and also validate accordingly - recent test scores have provided 99/100 on the Google Mobile Speed Test, a regular HTML mobile site will never get this close as it doesn't have the caching capability of PHP.

Hope that clarifies the myth of WordPress mobile sites being slow... we maybe the exception in this case compared to other mobile plugins, themes and frameworks but bottom line is they are not all developed the same way and are not all slow!

Cheers,

Jay

Sorry, I am too busy helping people to think of a cool signature!
Jay Moreno is offline  
Unread 28th Feb 2012, 11:21 PM   #13
Active Warrior
 
Jashandeepmax's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2012
Location: Mohali,Chandigarh,Punjab
Posts: 96
Thanks: 0
Thanked 6 Times in 6 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

I don't think so. That sites are not accessible on mobiles that's it.

I like to Participate in Communities ........
Jashandeepmax is offline  
Unread 29th Feb 2012, 01:43 AM   #14
Warrior Member
 
Join Date: 2011
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 18
Thanks: 4
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

It makes sense that since Google wants to return the most relevant results, of a searcher is using a mobile device, and ur site isn't mobile, then they're not going to highlight ur site, just to have a user bounce to another page. It comes down to relevance
calmaight is offline  
Unread 29th Feb 2012, 02:29 AM   #15
Warrior Member
 
Join Date: 2012
Posts: 20
Thanks: 4
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Of course no, Google won't do that. Not all of websites even high quality websites are friendly with mobile now. It need times to optimize website for mobile so I think it can't be happened now.

Joomla templates | Joomla extensions
Control Joomla in the most easy way? Just try JSN PowerAdmin for free now.
Ebook "Joomla 2.5 Made easy"
- Get for FREE at our facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joomlashine
tamnl is offline  
Unread 29th Feb 2012, 03:09 AM   #16
Banned
 
Join Date: 2011
Posts: 77
Thanks: 7
Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Thats like the Mobile Revolution. They won't flag you, or unless 99.99% of your sites traffic is coming from Mobiles .
Traffic Master is offline  
Unread 29th Feb 2012, 03:33 AM   #17
Tina Lindgren
 
lindgren's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2008
Location: Denmark.
Posts: 40
Thanks: 45
Thanked 22 Times in 12 Posts
Blog Entries: 1
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

This thread is very interesting to follow and I learned qute a lot - thanks to you all for your input :-)
Cheers!

Best Wishes
Tina Lindgren


http://www.tinalindgren.com
lindgren is offline  
Unread 29th Feb 2012, 05:01 AM   #18
Warrior Member
 
Join Date: 2012
Location: United States- UTAH
Posts: 6
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

In my opinion
Google will favor mobile sites only if the user searching is on a mobile device.
Jhon Alex is offline  
Unread 29th Feb 2012, 07:35 AM   #19
Web Marketing For Profit
War Room Member
 
Quentin's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2002
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 2,895
Thanks: 8
Thanked 1,162 Times in 528 Posts
Blog Entries: 10
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Well one popular script got 85% with the new Google speed test and my bigger Wordpress got 80% so I personally don't think using wordpress is as bad as people make out.

Quentin

Quentin is offline  
Unread 29th Feb 2012, 09:37 AM   #20
HyperActive Warrior
 
Join Date: 2009
Posts: 168
Thanks: 33
Thanked 21 Times in 20 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Google has not shown any favoritism yet... Just search for stuff on your mobile phone and you will see.

Will they, won't they? What does G consider "mobile"?

After dealing with Google in SEO for years, I have come to the conclusion that whatever they say ....do the opposite!


KingMedia is offline  
Unread 29th Feb 2012, 10:40 AM   #21
Mobile+WP = JumpMobi.com
War Room Member
 
Jay Moreno's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2009
Location: San Antonio, Tx
Posts: 1,270
Thanks: 301
Thanked 449 Times in 309 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

the only identification we have verified about mobile sites in Google is the placement of Green Mobile Handset Icons next to mobile sites that do actually validate to XHTML MP - the only advantage that we are able to see is that it helps identify the site as being mobile in the SERPS. However one point to note is that these icons are NOT shown on Google Mobile Search for Smartphones but ONLY in Google Mobile Search for Non Smartphones ie Google there are many sites that have the icon but are not necessarily ranked higher in the SERPS. If that where the case all the top 10 listing in the mobile search would have icons but they don't.

I do hope that Google does implement a similar feature with ranking placement for Google search for smartphones in the not too distant future. With them introducing the new Google Mobile Search Bot, specific Google Mobile Sitemaps and the release of the Speed Test for Mobile and GoMo it would certainly have you think they are gearing up and focusing on mobile in a big way!

Sorry, I am too busy helping people to think of a cool signature!
Jay Moreno is offline  
Unread 15th May 2012, 12:36 AM   #22
HyperActive Warrior
War Room Member
 
freeburd's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2009
Location: USA
Posts: 140
Thanks: 132
Thanked 31 Times in 21 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Originally Posted by bulldogzg View Post

Nah, I'm pretty sure it's not gonna "penalize" them as set up an automatic or manual penalty, more like add one more filter to the algo. Like bounce rate or site loading time etc. But they are getting more focused on on-site lately, that's for sure
+ if you have a WP site you can turn it into a mobile site with just one plugin.
Theoretically - yes. It looks horrible (to me). When I turned one of my websites to mobile using a plugin, I understood that that was not the way to go. That's when I bought Will's templates. I am very happy when I see how my mobile websites look and how easy it is for me to do maintenance. I am a big fan of WordPress, but not for mobile websites.




freeburd is offline  
Unread 16th May 2012, 08:01 AM   #23
brickandmobile.com
War Room Member
 
Kevin Z's Avatar
 
Join Date: 2010
Location: Toronto
Posts: 309
Thanks: 60
Thanked 106 Times in 64 Posts
Default
Re: Will Google penalize non-mobile-friendly sites?
Share on: 
fb share twitter share gplus share more share

Originally Posted by freeburd View Post

Theoretically - yes. It looks horrible (to me). When I turned one of my websites to mobile using a plugin, I understood that that was not the way to go. That's when I bought Will's templates. I am very happy when I see how my mobile websites look and how easy it is for me to do maintenance. I am a big fan of WordPress, but not for mobile websites.

You want to make sure your Mobile site is SEO optimized but also that it complies with the latest W3C mobile standards.

IMO Wordpress is great for desktop sites but the mobile side is still lagging in some themes out there and will actually bring your ranking and W3C compliance down.

However some WP theme developers are doing some great things with mobile so its important that you do your research.

The answer to your question is that yes Google will "favour" mobile friendly sites over a non mobile site in their search. And this will only become more prevalent as Google continues to refine their mobile search algorithm in the future.

[
brick&mobile
Click here to start your
Mobile Marketing business
Kevin Z is offline  
Closed Thread


Bookmarks

Tags
google, nonmobilefriendly, penalize, sites


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off




All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:40 AM.