Despite not being mandatory, Google strongly recommends having a mobile version of a website.
Brands need to consider mobile friendliness while designing their websites to boost search ranking. In the SEO community, Google's strategy to reassess mobile-friendly sites to meet the growing number of mobile searches has been dubbed as "mobilegeddon."
As smartphone searches expanded, Google began awarding domains that chose mobile-friendly designs to meet the demand from mobile searches and to improve search quality. The mobile-friendly update primarily affects mobile searches, whereas it has no impact when users search from their desktops.
However, according to Google, user intent is a stronger signal than the mobile ranking factor, and a page that hasn't been optimised for mobile can still rank in mobile search results. The article contends businesses with outdated website designs should upgrade their websites to be mobile-friendly.
[4 minute read]