How To Make Sure Your Blog Is Mobile Friendly And Avoid A Google Penalty

Starting April 21st, Google will roll out a mobile-friendly algorithm update.

What does this mean for you?

If your blog is not mobile friendly, Google has said this update will have a significant impact on search rankings. Sites that are mobile friendly will be given ranking preference over those that are not. The update will affect search results across all platforms, not just mobile. So it is important that your blog is mobile ready before this update.

If your blog is not mobile friendly by the deadline of April 21st you could see a major drop in your rankings and traffic from Google.

Making sure your blog is mobile friendly isn’t just important for Google. Your readers will also thank you. So much of our blog reading is being done on mobile devices these days, and mobile friendly sites make consuming your content so much easier.

How do I know if my blog is mobile friendly?

Google recently started identifying mobile friendly sites in mobile search, as seen here.

Use Google’s mobile friendly testing tool to quickly check if your blog is mobile ready.

Don’t panic if your blog does not pass. If you are using Blogger or WordPress we have some tips to easily get your blog mobile friendly and be safe from “mobilegeddon”

How to make your blog mobile friendly

WordPress and Blogger responsive themes – Responsive means that the theme will adapt to different browser and device sizes. The content will resize and rearrange to fit smaller screens without the need for a separate mobile theme or plugin. Most new themes are now being made responsive. Some developers may have updated their older themes to be responsive. If you are in the market for a new theme, be on the look out for one that is responsive.

WordPress plugins – If your theme is not responsiveness there are a number of WordPress plugins that will show a mobile version of your site to mobile traffic.

If you use Jetpack there is a mobile option built into the plugin. Just activate and configure.

Another good mobile WordPress plugin is WPTouch

Blogger mobile templates – Blogger has 8 built in mobile templates. All you need to do is pick a theme, activate it and all mobile traffic will now see your mobile theme.

To make sure your mobile theme is activated, go to your blogger dashboard > Template.
Click the gear icon under mobile.
Then select “Yes. Show mobile template on mobile devices.” and choose your theme.
Click save.