The search engines have all but made it official: mobile-friendliness is now the name of the game. Mobile search is growing and search engines are taking note. Last April 21, Google rolled out its mobile-friendly algorithm. Now, we are anticipating yet another onslaught of changes. This time, it’s mobilegeddon courtesy of Bing.
Bing’s announcement did not come as a surprise. The Microsoft-powered search engine started dropping hints about the impending algorithm last November, and the search engine started tagging search results with mobile-friendly labels over the past couple of months. These labels, according to Bing, gives users a better idea as to which results are worth clicking on.
What’s to come, however, will involve so much more than just mobile-friendly tags. Mobile-friendliness is set to become a ranking signal, which is why you may want to revisit this aspect when preparing your SEO campaign.
Ranking Bing’s Search Results
One key difference between Bing and Google’s update is that the former will strike a balance between mobile-friendliness and relevance. Google, however, will focus almost solely on mobile-friendliness. With Bing, results that aren’t mobile-friendly still have a chance to rank high, as long as they are relevant.
Moreover, sites that aren’t mobile-friendly will not be penalized by Bing; those that are have better chances of ranking higher, though.
Reigning Supreme in Bing’s Mobilegeddon
Fortunately, Bing provided a roadmap to ranking success. You don’t have to guess which factors are necessary to improve rankings. We summarized Bing’s criteria here for you:
- Navigation — it’s important to make elements like menus, buttons and links stand out—observe proper sizing and spacing to allow touch-based navigation. Don’t cram the elements in one space, as this will make clicking difficult for mobile users.
- Readability — content should be readable and immediately available. Users should not have to do much zooming or scrolling just to see your content. Bing reminds site owners to evaluate font size and viewport, as these affect readability.
- Scrolling — the content of your page should fit well within the device width. Users should not have to scroll horizontally to read the content.
- Compatibility — users must be able to access your content on any device. For instance, if the page has video or flash content, it should be viewable on smartphones or tablets.
Mobilegeddon is here. The question is, are you ready?
Optimise your site for mobile-friendliness with us. Contact us today and we’ll help you keep up with mobile-friendly algorithms.
