Google is updating its search algorithms to favour websites that work well on mobile devices. Sections of sites owned by the BBC, European Union and Wikipedia currently fail the Mobile Friendly Test developer tool. Mobile friendliness will affect how prominently websites appear in Google search results pages from 21 April.
Criteria includes text size, the amount of space between links and whether the content fits across a mobile screen. A Google representative said mobile friendliness was "one of many" factors used by the search engine to rank results, but in a blog post the company said it would have "a significant impact" on search results.
"As people increasingly search on their mobile devices, we want to make sure they can find content that’s not only relevant and timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens," the representative said. Google is also offering developer tools for making websites compliant with the mobile-friendly guidelines.