A few years back we saw a surge in the number of mobile websites launched. Many were built on a shoestring budget as a quick fix or interim measure to tick the proverbial box.
Having ticked this box, many companies have long forgotten about their mobile websites, concentrating solely on their desk top sites. This decision will come back to haunt thousands of companies. Responsive mobile websites will continue to be evaluated as the main website going forward.
But what does this mean? In simple terms, Google continues to place emphasis on indexing mobile, responsive websites first and foremost, paying close attention to loading speeds of mobile websites. Therefore any websites that do not have a quality mobile and responsive version will be marked down. This will see a negative effect on rankings on both mobile and desktop search results.
For sites using responsive web design, there should be no issue at all, because the content on mobile and desktop versions are likely the same. The problem occurs when a web page has different content on the mobile version than it does on the desktop version, and typically, for size and space reasons, this means there’s less content on the mobile version.
A company which has invested heavily in its desktop website and can be found on page 1 for its key search terms but has no mobile, responsive version or one with limited content and slow loading speeds will see its rankings drop significantly. Whilst desktop and mobile search results will still be separate, now if you have a poor mobile site it will negatively affect the entire site’s performance.
Mobile accounts for more than 52.2 percent of all web traffic worldwide; a trend Google is accommodating with algorithm changes.
So now more than ever it is not ok to just have a mobile or responsive version of your website to tick the box. There must be a quality responsive website at the heart of companies’ sales and marketing strategy.
