Google Search Changes Coming April 21

iStock_update-300x225Hi and welcome to OurChurch.Com’s monthly SEO Update for March 2015, keeping you up to date on what’s happening in the world of search and how it affects you.

I’m Paul Steinbrueck.  Here’s the latest news in the world of search marketing…

1) Mark your calendar, April 21st, Google Will Make a Major Search Algorithm Update

For the last several months we’ve been telling you Google is beginning to factor mobile friendliness into its mobile search rankings.  Well, recently Google took the unprecedented step of announcing a major algorithm change well ahead of implementing it.  Google wrote:

Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.

Usually, Google usually doesn’t give any warning when they’re going to update their search rankings, in fact, search algorithm updates have always been a well-kept secret that spurred wide spread speculation.

In this case, however, Google wants everyone to know having a mobile friendly site is important.  They’re going to give mobile friendly sites better search rankings and they want everyone to know about it before hand

Just to clarify, right now Google is saying mobile-friendliness will only impact searches done on mobile devices, but keep in mind a) that could change in the future, and b) according to some sources more than half of all searches are done on mobile devices already.

The bottom line: this is a big deal, so 2 recommendations

1) If you’re not sure if your site is mobile friendly or not, you can check using a link we’ll put in the blog post for this video.

2) If you’re site is not mobile friendly, it’s time for a redesign.

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-mobile-friendly-search-ranking-factors-19926.html

2) Net Neutrality Law Passed

  • This highly controversial and heavily debated law was passed a couple weeks ago. There are many technical and political factors involved in the new law, but the main reason outlined in the bill was to bar big cable companies from being able to charge big content providers like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube extra fees to ensure fast, priority delivery of data, and alternatively slow down delivery of content for those who don’t pay.
  • While that may sound good, the downside is if cable companies are not getting money from content providers for premium delivery, they will likely seek more money from their customers. Another potential downside is this was a huge piece of legislation, introducing lots of new internet regulations most of which are not well understood at this point.  We’ll continue to monitor the net-nutrality issue and its impact on search as things develop.

http://gizmodo.com/fcc-passes-strongest-net-neutrality-rules-in-americas-h-1688204371


3) Google Tests Live Chat With Businesses Directly From Search Results

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/24/google-hangouts-for-places/

  • A new experimental chat feature offers a direct text-based line of communication right from Google Maps or “local results” A “chat available” label that appears in the listing next to the phone number indicates that a business has the functionality available. Once clicked, Google Hangouts immediately launches and allows the searcher live communication to the business on your desktop or mobile device.
  • It’s still very early at this stage, however, and there’s no guarantee it’ll ever become a full-fledged feature with general availability. So, we’ll have to see if Google expands this in the coming months.

4) Is Google Mobile Testing a “Slow” Label In Search Results? https://www.seroundtable.com/google-slow-label-19914.html

Perhaps. Page speed is a ranking factor in both desktop and mobile search.  But Google may want to warn people before they click to a really slow website.   Some people have seen examples of a new “slow” label next to a site in the search results.  One of the examples published was a Youtube listing, the other was a website located in India. This is at the testing phase and we don’t have any news from Google itself, but it serves as a good reminder that to give users and search engines the best experience, make sure your website loads quickly.

5) Google Now Offering One-On-One Support For Webmasters With Hacked Sites http://www.google.com/webmasters/hacked/

Because hackers initially find vulnerabilities through Google’s search engine, Google has launched a task force to help its web community bounce back as soon as possible when their websites is hacked. Recently the first sign of malware is an email from Google Webmaster tools indicating a website has possibly been hacked. From the time of that email a webmaster has 48 hours to address the vulnerability and submit their corrections to Google for review before their website is labeled in search results as “This site may be hacked” After another 48 hours Google will ultimately remove the website from their search results completely (until corrected).


Wrap-up

That is all for this month’s update.

As we approach Easter, and many folks continue to observe Lent.  I want to remind you that giving up good search rankings for Lent is not a good idea.

We live in this internet age, so it’s important that you stay strong in the search engines so you can achieve your mission online.  We here at OurChurch.Com are here to help you do that, so if we can answer any questions for you or do anything else to help you improve your search engines and achieve your mission online, please give us a call or send us an email.

Thanks for watching!

28 Responses to “Google Search Changes Coming April 21”

  1. Finally, it's time for mobile-friendly website. I will be happy if all websites know this update and change theirs.

  2. it will be the latest update of google and I liked the friendliness of the new update

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  4. Thank you for the article!

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  7. Even thinking about the changes that brought up by the GoogleUpdates you will find yourself uncomfortable that it used to carry your websites away from the google and totally lost about the ranking and production.

  8. google has taken good decision. i support google. because there has a lot of user browsing internet by mobile. so mobile friendly browsing is very helpful for mobile user. thanks share this post. we are really happy to know this news.

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  12. So now is the time for mobile friendly websites. What i like most about this update is that Google will notify the websites that are hacked through emails. It will allow webmasters to know about the vulnerabilities in their sites. Thanks for sharing this information with us.

  13. This is a very useful post about the changes in google. Thanks for sharing

  14. It seems that latest Google update was on Jan 8, 2016.

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