In mid-April, Google rolled out its latest search algorithm update that was meant to reward websites for having mobile friendly versions. It has now been a few months since the update and the message from Google has been made clear; the better user experience that companies provide via their website, the more they will be rewarded with an increase in page ranking.
The update not only affects website search ranking when a search is performed on a mobile device, but it also affects sites when searches are performed on PCs. According to MarketingChamplu.com, sites that were not mobile friendly saw a 25-28% drop in rankings. Furthermore, sites that were mobile friendly saw an increase of anywhere from 2-15%. Equally impressive is that 17% of non-mobile friendly sites who had previously been on page 1 for various queries saw a fall from the first page of Google search results.
It is important to note that the ranking of entire websites were not affected by the mobile friendly update, but instead only individual pages. NBCsports.com saw a rankings drop of 28% while census.gov suffered a 23% drop in search rankings. Results weren’t all negative for large companies as many were prepared for the algorithm update due to their ability to keep up with the quickly changing times. Washingtimes.com saw a ranking jump with an average page increase of 21% and imgur.com jumped a whopping 32% after the update was rolled out.
Key Takeaways
Improve the User Experience
Google’s algorithm updates are truly meant to reward sites for creating an excellent user experience. The more time your company puts in to their site to deliver helpful content in a way that makes it easily accessible to the masses, the more Google will reward your site with better rankings.
Content Marketing is King
Want to improve your company’s search engine optimization with a sure fire strategy? If so, create content that is useful to your target audience on a daily basis. Google will never penalize you for creating truly helpful content. Remember, as the use of video continues to emerge as a popular medium, Google will eventually find a way to reward companies for having content of this nature on their site. With that said, don’t be hesitant to deliver content to your audience in diverse ways!
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