Bing to follow Google’s “Mobilegeddon” and give higher rankings to Mobile-friendly Websites

If you have a website is not mobile friendly, your search engine rankings are likely to go lower than they presently are. With a large proportion of Internet users browsing the web through their mobile devices instead of desktop computers, search engines are already using mobile friendly ranking signals that will give a higher ranking to mobile optimized websites. Google already introduced a mobile-friendly update on Apr 21, 2015 to give higher priority to mobile friendly websites.

Bing Follows in the Line of Google, but No Launch Date Revealed Yet

Bing is next in line after Google to introduce a ranking algorithm that factors in mobile friendliness. The launch date for the algorithm update by Bing has not been released yet. But we noticed Bing has quietly added a “mobile friendly” label to web pages listed in their mobile search results that are mobile-friendly. And it seems Bing is not keen to make a big buzz around it’s mobile friendly update perhaps because Google’s “Mobilegeddon” has already created a big buzz.

Content Quality will Still be the Key Factor

Even though you’ll now get brownie points for optimizing your website for mobiles, they will still not be enough to get an edge over content-rich websites that may not be very mobile friendly. Good quality and relevant content will continue to get top places in search results. And with an additional asset of easy mobile accessibility, a content rich page would be able to get maximum footage.

Making Your Website Mobile-friendly: The Factors that Matter

a) How Easy it is to Navigate
Sufficient spaces between buttons and clear fonts suitable for smaller screen sizes, among other factors, make a website easy to navigate on mobile.

b) Content Readability
A page that can be read comfortably on mobile without requiring the user to zoom in or scroll sideways too much, constitutes a mobile friendly page.

c) Quick to Load Content
A web page must have quickly loading content on mobile platforms like iOS and Android to make it to the search results of mobile users.

An Additional Tip:
It will do you immense good to not block out your JavaScript and CSS resources from Bingbot. These bots are what crawl your external resources to judge if the page is suitable for mobile viewing. If you block them, it will make it hard or even impossible for Bing to understand your website’s layout, consequently preventing it from being labeled mobile friendly.

With the new ranking algorithm just around the corner, it becomes essential for businesses and individuals to optimize their websites for mobile viewing. For, if you don’t, you’re missing out on a large chunk of users & their mobile browsing time.

Conclusion:

With the two major search engines giving higher priority to mobile-friendly websites, a mobile-friendly website is no longer a useless fancy accessory as many business owners still think it is…instead it is a must requirement to compete head-to-head on search engines.

Start by checking your website for mobile-friendliness on Google’s Mobile-friendly test tool. If your website fails the test, that means its not mobile-friendly. Get in touch with Pat’s Marketing to get your website mobile friendly.

Pat’s Marketing is a digital marketing agency based in downtown Toronto and serving 100+ customers in North America.