Trends on Tuesday: Google to Implement Mobile-Friendly Rankings

As the use of smartphones continues to grow, it has become even more important for websites to be mobile-friendly. Google has been aware of this trend for quite some time. In response to this trend, Google made it a lot simpler for users to see mobile-friendly websites within search results by the use of a mobile-friendly tag back in November.

In order to assist the anytime, anywhere user, Google will begin ranking mobile-friendly sites higher in search results in April. Google believes that users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.

As the amount of mobile Web traffic increases, it is important for government to ensure that information is made available to the public when and how they want it

Does your website pass Google’s test for mobile-friendliness? If not, check out some of the tools and resources available on DigitalGov and join the MobileGov Community of Practice. The community has discussed challenges around mobilizing websites and leveraging open source CMS for responsive web design. In addition, agencies can leverage Sites.USA.gov which allows them to easily create responsive and mobile ready websites on an open source platform.