Most people can recall landing on a Google Search result while surfing the internet on their smartphones, only to discover that they not only had to scroll continuously to view the content properly; they also had to misfortune of dealing with text that was far too small and clickable links that had been placed too close together. This level of frustration has resulted in Google deciding to add a “mobile-friendly” tag to its mobile websites and search results.

Example:

Immediate Implementation

Google has recently stated that it would be implementing their new tag system to search results with immediate effect, which will make it a lot easier for everyone using mobile devices when using the internet to find information they need quickly and easily. While the search engine giant has stated that the change would start being implemented right away, it would still take a few weeks before it would be available on a global scale. However, once a site has managed to earn this attribution, Google has hinted that it could look forward to being boosted well above sites that did not display the tag when it came to displaying relevant search results.

Criteria for Eligibility

A website or individual web page would only be bestowed with the much-envied “mobile-friendly” label if it is able to meet a specified set of criteria as detected by the Google bot. These include using text that is readable without having to be zoomed in on, avoiding software that is not mobile-friendly (such as Flash Player), placing clickable links far enough apart so that the correct one can be clicked on quickly and easily and sizing all of a site’s content according to the screen it is being displayed on, so users do not have to waste time zooming unnecessarily or scrolling horizontally to get through all of it.

Obtaining the Envied “Mobile-Friendly” Tag

In order for mobile websites to be awarded with the soon to be coveted “mobile-friendly” tag, they would need to be 100% accessible and usable on all forms of mobile devices. Website owners who would like to find out how to go about achieving this can visit Google’s Webmaster pages to find out. Here, they will be able to perform a mobile-friendly test with each of their site’s pages, peruse updated documentation pertaining to how they can create mobile sites or improve existing mobile sites, view their site’s mobile usability report in the Webmaster Tools section of the site and take a look at how to migrate sites that are hosted on a CMS to a mobile-friendly template.

At present, all of the above mentioned Google Webmaster Tools are only available in English. However, the search giant has stated that they will become available in a few other languages within the next couple of weeks at most. Google has also stated that it sees these labels as the first step in a process that would help as many mobile users as possible to have a better overall mobile internet experience.