Google is introducing yet another revolution, this time in mobile search results. According to the announcement which can be found on the official Google blog for webmasters, starting from July this year, one of the factors which will influence the ranking in a mobile search engine will be the page loading speed. Until now, this factor has only been applied in desktop search engines, and only then has it influenced the position of websites in Google.
Page loading speed
With the help of Test My Site with Google or PageSpeed Insights, one can check the loading speed of a website. If the result is poor, it is a good time to take actions now to improve the loading speed of a website on mobile devices. By testing a webpage with the use of above-mentioned tools, we can obtain not only a result, but also optimisation hints. The tool can suggest for instance optimisation of images, shortening server response time, or using cache memory of the browser.
Who will be affected by the changes?
Although Google informs that the update, called Speed Update, will affect only the slowest pages, and one of the most important factors will continue to be the match of content to search phrases, it is still worth looking after the site loading speed. It will have a positive effect not only on our position in the search engine, but also on general satisfaction of users of our website. Thus, they will be able to conveniently use it on all mobile devices.
The meaning of mobile
Announced for quite some time, the long-waited mobile year has come true. As research shows, over a half of traffic on websites is generated through mobile devices. Therefore, there is no doubt that it is worth investing not only in the responsiveness, but also in all facilities for users visiting websites on their smart-phones or tablets. According to last year’s studies, 66% of the population are users of mobile devices; and in countries such as Spain, Italy, or Germany, this figure is between 80% and 90%! So, it seems obvious that actions taken by Google make great sense. Fortunately, we have as much as half a year to prepare our websites for the changes.