Google change in policy will affect online casinos

Beginning on April 21, 2015, Google will include mobile-friendliness as one of the factors that determines a website’s ranking. With the launch date coming closer, Google reps held a Google+ hangout this week in which they offered clarifications and answered questions.

Is your site mobile friendly?
Google said that the easiest way to check if your site is mobile-friendly is to Google yourself from your phone. If you see a gray “mobile-friendly” label next to your site, then you do not have anything to worry about. If you don’t see the label, then you have some work ahead of you.

Because if your site is not ranked “mobile-friendly” by Google, beginning on April 21st it will appear lower down in the SERPs - Search Engine Results Page. (SERPs are the results of key words typed into the Google search engine.) There will be no degrees of mobile-friendly - either your site is, or is not.

What does this mean for online casinos?
While this is a step that will only affect mobile searches - not PC and laptop searches - it will still affect online casinos in a dramatic way. It means that when potential players are searching for online casinos on Google, they will only see the ones that are mobile-friendly. The website will then simply drop off of people’s radars, decreasing its popularity, and income.
But all is not lost for online casinos that do not yet have the mobile-friendly ranking. Google has laid out its criteria for labeling sites “mobile-friendly,” so the task of these casinos will be to conform to these guidelines. Google has also put out a detailed list of mistakes that websites might make when going mobile-friendly, so online casinos can use that as they strive to improve their sites.