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Google dropping “Mobile-friendly” label from search results

Google says the change is designed to declutter its search results.

Barry Schwartz on August 23, 2016 at 12:00 pm

Google says it is doing away with the mobile-friendly label that appears in search results. That does not mean that the mobile-friendly algorithm is dead, it just means Google is removing the label.

In its announcement, Google said that “85% of all pages in the mobile search results” now are mobile-friendly by Google’s criteria and thus they decided to declutter the search results by removing the label. The label launched officially in November 2014.

If you do not see your site with the mobile-friendly label, there is no need to worry. You can use Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool and/or check your mobile usability report in the Google Search Console.

Here is a screen shot of what the mobile-friendly label looked like up until today in the Google mobile search results:

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.