You might already be aware that Google has started an algorithmic update as of yesterday, 21 April 2015, and that it's predicted to affect more websites than the Panda and Penguin updates which means more than 11% of rankings will change. The update released will affect mobile friendly sites potentially giving them a boost in ranking performance in mobile searches.

For websites that are already built with a responsive design and that display a mobile-friendly tag in search results, then you are good to go. 

However, if your website is not responsive then you could be missing out on top rankings for your key terms and also a key audience demographic that use smartphones for browsing the internet. We recently blogged on the importance of having a mobile responsive website because more than 40% of worldwide searches happen from mobile devices and the Google update is expected to benefit those websites that are mobile friendly. This does not mean that if your website is not mobile friendly, it will be penalised. It only means that those websites which are mobile friendly will get a boost in organic rankings.

The algorithm works on a page-by-page basis so even if some of your web pages are mobile-friendly they may still benefit from this update.

This update won't affect desktop searches so there won't be any affect on your desktop rankings and it only impacts searches done on mobile smartphone devices, not from tablets.

Being mobile-friendly is still only one of many signals that Google use to rank pages. It may be that if your website is the most relevant and authoritative result then Google will still rank you in first position even if your website is not mobile-friendly. Relevancy is more important. We've used Search Engine Land's periodic table of SEO to display all the components that make up and determine rankings.

If you're worried about Google's mobile update or want to make your site responsive and mobile-friendly so that you make the most of your rankings in mobile search results then please call the office on 01323 735800 and a member of the team will be able to advise.