Why is Google changing Search Engine Results For Mobile?
On the 21st April (2015) Google changed the search engine results pages for mobile devices. Putting ‘mobile friendly’ pages ahead of non-mobile friendly pages. In a bid to rightly differentiate the search results based on the device you are viewing the content on and the contents suitability for mobile. How the suitability is defined could either put your website ahead or behind in the race to get up the search results ladder. This update has come about for some obvious reasons which are:
- More Mobile Devices Used
- More Search Engine Results Made on Mobile Devices
- Value of Mobile optimization left behind by many companies
- New Features of Search Engine For Mobile can be utilized
Our presentation made ahead of the Search Engine changes explains how you should be reviewing your own website for mobile search results. Making sure your website doesn’t get left behind in the results stakes. Lets not forget here that an increasing number of people are using mobile devices so search engine visibility in mobile search results is important. Optimising should be considered as a must in any digital marketing strategy and web-design project.
With an increasing number of tablets and smart mobile devices serving up content online. The way content is understood and rendered by search engines determines if your content is ‘mobile-friendly’ or not. Getting mobile content right has many advantages, there are differences you can make that use the phones features for example. Most integral, is being able to call from the phone, and another is using the map functions of smart phones to find a location of a business, event or organisation. Location marketing can take on new realms of relevancy when mobile content for SEO is done right.
Mobile Web-Traffic Volume is Big & Growing
Globally mobile traffic equates to 30% of all internet traffic. In the US alone it is 30% of all traffic and in India it accounts for a whopping 70%. So if you are a Global brand and not thinking about this then you are loosing customers every day.
When it comes to the average load times of search results, mobile sites have to be quick in order to have a chance of getting to the top. The top 7 positions in mobile search results are pages with load times of 1 second or less. Statistically the goalposts have shifted in quite a bit. So if you have an optimised site for mobile, you will the opportunity to have much higher website traffic volumes than those that don’t.
In Googles’s ideal world there would be one result for each search query. This update is one smaller step closer for Google towards that dream. They are refining what is shown in search engine results pages based on device. This changes the role of an SEO agency as the relevance of content is an emphasis, as well as understanding the technical requirements of Google, to optimize search engine results.
Prepare & take advantage of the changes. This is our guide on what you should be doing to get ahead of the competition in mobile search results. Please make use of the full screen option and navigate down as well as right.
If you want to know more about how to implement the changes required to create mobile-friendly websites and Google’s mobile search results, Brands on Digital are offering a service aimed at this. Which can identify and prioritise the changes required. Implementing them with or without existing technical and creative teams in place.
