Recently, Google announced they plan on creating separate search result indexes for desktop and mobile. On top of that, mobile will receive more updates than their desktop platform, making it the priority. Considering last year they began penalizing non-responsive websites, their point is clear—mobile search takes precedence over desktop search.
Having a separate index allows them to provide an even better mobile search experience. This means more optimized search results for consumers, providing only mobile-friendly sites with the best and most relevant content.
They aren’t just making this change because they want mobile to be more important either. In a study ran to find what devices people use and how often, Google found that almost 40% of all respondents use only their smartphones for their search needs throughout the day. Additionally, they found people use their smartphones for nearly three hours each day, compared to two hours on a desktop and 75 minutes on a tablet. They have always tried to create the best possible experience for users, so as the world continues to shift away from desktop and in some cases to using only mobile devices, Google will cater to those trends.
What This Means For You
If you still operate a non-responsive website, you no longer can afford to avoid updating. Not only will your site drop in desktop search results, it may not even show up on a mobile search.
While having a mobile-friendly website is a big priority, that doesn’t mean you can ignore other aspects like speed and user experience. Thus, you can’t just throw a mobile-friendly site together and expect to see a boost in your rankings. Like desktop websites, people want mobile sites to load fast. Earlier this year, Google found that if mobile sites don’t load within three seconds, 53% of people abandon the page.
Want to know how your current website is doing? Check out Google’s PageSpeed Tool and Mobile-Friendly Test.
If your site loads slowly or fails the mobile test, we can help. We build fast and responsive websites that attract relevant traffic and convert those visitors. Call us today for more information!
