Mobile searches have already taken over desktop searches, as more than half of the time people spend online these days is on a mobile device.
While this clearly indicates the importance of having a mobile-compatible website, it also underscores how crucial it is that mobile sites rank well and provide a good user experience. If they don’t, mobile sites can detract from the success of desktop sites – and possibly even from the reputation and growth of a business.
Given that the user experience and rankings for mobile sites can be impacted by different elements than those for desktop sites, below, we will point out some of the primary factors that can detract from versus enhance the mobile experience and, consequently, mobile site rankings.
What Can Negatively Affect Mobile Site Rankings
- Slow loading speeds – Mobile sites that take longer than about 4 to 6 seconds to load are generally considered to have slow loading times. And, the slower the site is to load on a mobile device, the more likely users will click back and look for another site. More click backs tend to mean higher bounce rates, and this will usually cause the site to drop in rankings.
- Small font and too many links – This combination of factors can make for a poor user experience, as well as higher bounce rates for a mobile site. This is usually because users trying to read the content on a mobile site and/or click through to other content are going to have trouble doing either of these things when the font is small and the content is cluttered with links.
- Too much text – The average person is usually not going to want to read extensive amounts of text on a mobile site/device. In fact, blocks of text that are difficult to read can have the same off-putting effect of as small font, increasing the likelihood that users will leave a site and look for info on another site that is easier to look at, navigate and read.
- App interstitials – This refers to the intermediate pages that ask users to download an app, rather than taking them immediately to a mobile site. Such interstitials can, again, present another barrier to users getting to the mobile site and finding the content they are looking for. As a result, this too will typically increase bounce rates and can end up resulting in worse rankings for mobile sites.
What Can Improve Mobile Site Rankings
- Fewer images & faster load times – These two factors can go hand-in-hand, as fewer images typically improve mobile site load times. However, if load times are still slow despite minimal images, more work should be done to get the load time to be less than 4 seconds (and, more ideally, less than 2 seconds).
- Fewer ads & concise text – Basically, mobile sites that get to the point and have less clutter will do better with users (and search engines) than those that are packed with ads and text.
- Bigger font & less links – This factor is closely related with the above point, as larger font and natural, spaced out links can better engage users while facilitating navigation on mobile sites (and smaller screens).
- Responsive design – Google considers responsive design to be a best practice for mobile, as this type of design ensures that a mobile site will appear correctly across different types (and sizes) of mobile devices.
Contact Epic Web Results for Effective Internet Marketing Solutions
Are you ready to realize better results from your desktop and mobile sites? If so, contact Epic Web Results today. Our skilled industry professionals are up to date with the latest advances in Internet marketing and SEO best practices, and we are highly adept at designing and maintaining optimized websites that will soar to the top of search engines.
To learn more about our customized, innovative Internet marketing solutions, contact the professionals at Epic Web Results by calling (800) 501-9724 or by emailing us using the contact form on this page.
