Does Google Really Understand Mobile Friendly?

MobileGeddon: The MobileTastrophy is upon us and so far nothing has really happened. This is good news since I’m not quite sure Google understands what mobile friendly actually means.

Remember this is an algo update that is supposed to run at the page, not site level. Here is an example of a page that I would not consider mobile friendly:

It’s a ~5mb page that takes 11+ seconds to load when tested using Chrome on a Nexus 5. No way this would qualify as mobile friendly right?

Wrong!

According to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool, huge pages that take forever to load ARE mobile friendly! This raises a couple of issues:

1) Google’s Mobile Testing Tool is Wrong/Incomplete – If this is true, it means that page speed, and other factors not accounted for by the tool, are factored into the mobile-friendly tag or mobile algo update.

2) Google Doesn’t Really Understand Mobile – Honestly, if a 5mb page that takes 12+ seconds to load is mobile friendly, then Flying Spaghetti Monster help us all, and our data plans. I feel like this deck by Jonathan Coleman offers a fantastic explanation about why site speed is critical for both SEO and user experience. Having improperly sized touch targets is frustrating, but not as frustrating as sitting around and waiting for a page to load when I need quick answers.

Have you run into any similar issues with the mobile testing tool? Let us know in the comments!