Why Responsive Web Design is Important: Google Mobile Index
The Internet mobile-age has dawned upon us with more people than ever before accessing the web through mobile devices. Unfortunately, most websites, even those that have been developed over the recent past are not designed for the mobile display.
Some businesses have taken a swift response to adjust to these evolving marketplace demands. They have started redesigning their organization websites in mobile-friendly formats. However, most of the businesses across the globe are lagging behind in this factor.
It is an almost inconceivable idea that to this day, companies do not to have mobile-optimized websites. Possibly, the decision-makers in these organizations are not aware of the negative impact this has on their bottom-line.
For more details on how unresponsiveness can do harm to your business see: 10 Small Business Website Errors That Drive Customers Away.
What is a responsive website?
Responsiveness goes beyond a website being accessible via handheld devices. It entails designing the site to display properly on smaller screens. It should also facilitate easy, convenient, and intuitive navigation. This ensures that the visitors have a positive experience while using your website.
Surprising Statistics
It is no longer safe for businesses to assume that their potential clients will visit their website through the traditional laptop or desktop computer browser. In Australia alone, 75% of the population owns a mobile device. Moreover, 84% of this population is highly dependent on their phones for communication and entertainment.
Here is a glimpse of the statistics on mobile phone use from across the globe:
- 4 billion people in the world own mobile phones
- There are 1.08 billion smartphones spread across the globe
- Up to 50% of local searches are made using mobile devices
- 86% of mobile Internet users surf the internet while watching TV
- 50% of 175 million Twitter users use the Twitter Mobile App
- A third of 700 million Facebook users use Facebook Mobile
- In 2015, there were more Google searches via hand-held devices than that of desktop computers in 10 countries, with the US and Japan being among them.
What You Need To Know About Google Mobile Index
Over the recent past, Google launched a dedicated mobile index. It targets to go beyond penalizing sites that are not responsive.
The Google search algorithms have been rewarding sites that are mobile friendly. Such sites get a higher search engine ranking. Moreover, it has been penalizing the ones are not responsive by ranking lower in the mobile search.
While the traditional Google search index has been factoring in both the desktop and mobile-optimized websites, the new algorithm index is aimed at expanding responsiveness as a ranking signal. This will have a significant impact on SEO rankings.
The Google mobile index will become the primary index
It will have a global impact on all mobile searches in all languages. Besides looking at design elements, the mobile index will also consider the mobile page performance. As such, the Google Mobile Index will arguably be more important than its desktop counterpart and eventually, become the primary index.
The desktop index will be maintained, but…
Though Google is yet to reveal more details about these changes, the desktop index will continue to be maintained but will have less frequent refreshes.
The mobile first index will have different effects on the website and mobile app owners. The websites that are not responsive and do not have a mobile version will suffer the most. However, this does not mean that these sites will not be indexed at all. It just means that the search engine will not prioritize them in their rankings and thus will have poor SEO ranking.
For the websites with a separate mobile version, the mobile-friendly section will be indexed. The rest of the content will be crawled by the desktop version. Finally, if the site is responsive, the mobile index will not have a negative impact on the current rankings. It is likely to improve the site’s rankings further.
[…] A very important aspect that may make or break the ability of your website to generate leads. Currently, more people access internet using mobile phones than PCs and more so, a mobile-unfriendly website leads to poor search engine ranking. Thus is imperative to have a responsive website. See why Responsive Design is Important. […]
[…] The Internet mobile-age of has dawned upon us, with more people than ever before accessing the web through hand held devices such as smart phones, tablets, touch pads and more. The convectional websites, even those that have been developed over the recent past are not tailor made for the mobile-displays thus, they have poor rendering […]