We were told last month that Google would be snuffing out any sites that were using mobile redirects, and according to Google’s Search Quality Senior Strategist, Andrey Lipattsev, they mean this in earnest.
Lipattsey mentioned in a Google hangout session that his team of detectors is working tirelessly to stop mobile affiliate traffic networks from jostling users from one site to another. Redirecting a user to a different site is normally not an issue, but for mobile sites this can be a slow loading process and harms the overall user experience.
During the Google hangout session, Lipattsey said that many publishers will intentionally add these mobile traffic networks to sites on purpose in an effort to increase profits. It’s important for users to fix their unwanted redirects, or risk manual actions against the search engine giant. Many webmasters may unintentionally have these redirects due to either being hacked or poor ads on the site.
However, there are ways to clean up these reroutes. Do a self test and see if you are redirected when navigating to your mobile site. You can ask around or read reviews to see if anyone is complaining about the slow navigational speed. Checking the site’s analytics for any unusual changes is a good indication of a mobile redirect problem as well.
This action could be a move in Google’s quest to make the web faster and more responsive for mobile users. This monumental project is called the Accelerated Mobile Pages project — and the search engine is starting to gain more supporters in the form of developers, technology providers and publishers.
So what makes this different from the last time Google warned webmasters that they would crack down on this issue? Well, the difference is that now we have inside confirmation from Google’s team that they are actively pursuing this issue.