Across the world there are now more people doing Google searches on mobile devices than Desktop computers. That means more than half of the 100 billion searches monthly are occurring on devices with screens 6 inches or smaller (according Google’s Amit Singhal, senior vice president of search and reported by this article in The Verge last month).
3 Reasons Mobile Search Should Matter to Your Business?
Reason 1: Because it matters to your customers & visitors
When was the last time you looked at your own website on a mobile device? More importantly, when was the last time you looked at your competitor’s website on a mobile device? If it has been awhile then now might be a good time to take a look and refresh your memory. If you find yourself squinting at the screen or waiting too long for the page to load, chances are your customer’s have already moved on to the next site or gone back to the search results.
Reason 2: Your site ranks very differently in Mobile than Desktop
Not all search results are the same and just because your site ranks well on desktop does not mean it ranks the same on mobile – in fact it’s probably very different. Mobile friendly sites are ranked higher by Google (read our post on Mobilegeddon) in addition to having more engaged users. This means that if your site is not mobile friendly, it might actually rank lower than other sites with similar content that have been optimized for mobile. On the flip side, optimizing your mobile site before your competitors is a great way to get an advantage over them in mobile search result rankings.
Reason 3: Mobile influences purchases and it all starts with Search
Consumers already spend more than 15 hours per week on mobile research (as this study points out: Google/Nielsen Mobile Path to Purchase custom study, Nov 2013). Most of them start this process with mobile search and many are looking to purchase within the day or even the hour. Some of these purchases happen online and other happen in the store but there is no doubt that mobile heavily influences this cycle.
How to improve your site on Mobile
First, why not use this Free and quick Google Mobile Friendly Test – just type in your site and see right away. If there are serious issues you’ll find out right away.
Second, ask a professional. It just so happens that we are professionals and feel free to contact us about mobile or to review your mobile website needs.
Third, get your hands dirty or look into things on your own. This article from Search Engine Land has some great tips on what some of the more important things to consider might be. Some of this includes Page Load Speed, Text Structure or Organization, Links, Keywords and a bunch of other items you’re probably too busy to deal with.
Mobile Search Summary and Advice
If you take away anything from this blog post, realize that mobile use and particularly mobile search is only going to grow. Search rankings are already very competitive and using a mobile friendly and well optimized design will provide and advantage in search as well as be more engaging to users. If you don’t have the time or resources to design a mobile friendly website, our advice would be to try and at least address the things you can fix or improve in terms of content and page load speed and start setting aside a budget for the future.