Be On The Winning Side
For strong search engine rankings, optimizing your website for mobile devices is key.
Your website needs to be mobile-friendly since more than half of all global web traffic comes from mobile devices.
- Google prioritizes mobile page load speed as a key metric when determining your website’s search ranking, which is significant since 94% of organic search traffic comes from Google.
- Google offers free online tools to help you evaluate how mobile-friendly your website is and provides tips to help you optimize it.
Digital marketing has become a major consideration for all businesses, small and large. Few aspects of digital marketing are as important as driving traffic to your website and landing pages, and few elements of capturing new clicks are as important as ranking well on Google and other major search engines. By optimizing websites and content, businesses can improve their search engine result page (SERP) ranking. This is known as an organic search strategy, and it can be particularly effective.
As internet traffic increasingly comes from mobile devices, Google has shifted its focus to mobile-friendly website optimization.
A well-optimized desktop site and troves of content mean little without mobile optimization. What makes a mobile-friendly website so important, and how can you improve your ranking?
Failing to establish a mobile-friendly website means all your other organic search efforts could be in vain.
Search engine results page ranking and mobile optimization
Since July 2018, Google has prioritized mobile page load speed as a key metric when determining a website’s search result ranking. If your mobile website is slow or unresponsive, it comes with a hefty penalty to your overall ranking across all devices.
Google is responsible for about 94% of total organic search traffic worldwide, meaning you can’t afford to ignore its shift toward mobile-friendly optimization. Therefore, investing in website optimization must include mobile optimization. [Read related story: Google for Business: A Small Business Guide]
“Businesses with slow mobile sites may see a decrease in mobile organic rankings on Google,” said Tony Palazzo, vice president of operations and marketing of Logical Position. “Speed has always been a factor of ranking, but previously, it was based on the desktop version of your site; now, it’s going to be looking at your mobile site load speed.”
How can you tell if your website is mobile-friendly or not?
Google has made the process of checking how well your website loads on mobile devices easy with a tool on the Google Search Console. Simply plug in your website’s URL – Google will tell you whether or not it is considered mobile-friendly under its current algorithm. Alternatively, you can plug in the code for your website to test whether a newly developed website is mobile-friendly before it goes live.
“While Google says slower sites that still have great content may still rank highly, it’s a clear push for companies and developers to emphasize performance and the user experience on mobile platforms,” said Sean Brady, president of Americas at Emarsys. “Companies must select the right technology and employ the right strategies to deliver both relevant personalized content and mobile performance.”
