Google has announced that it will be dropping the “mobile-friendly” label from its search results. The mobile-friendly label appears next to web pages that are properly mobile optimized in mobile search results. Mobile search label was first introduced by Google two years ago in November of 2014 to encourage clicks on web pages that are mobile optimized to ensure better UX on mobile devices. Mobile search results will now no longer show that label.
The reason behind this move has to do with the hugely positive response to mobile optimization. Google says that 85% of all pages in mobile search results are mobile-friendly. With the surge in mobile adoption, Google says that need to continue displaying the mobile-friendly label is no longer necessary.
Although Google is dropping the mobile-friendly label from mobile search results, this move will make no difference to mobile-friendly ranking signal criteria nor will it impact ranking of web pages in Google’s mobile search results.
Site owners who don’t see the mobile-friendly label need not panic. Google’s mobile usability report can still be easily accessed in the Search Console and site owners can also use Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool to ensure that their mobile pages are optimized.
