We all hear the buzz about mobile devices changing how people use and access the internet. If recent history is any indication, this behavior is only going to increase instead of go away. Recent trend reports covering 2012 mobile subscribers and mobile internet use offer the following eye opening statistics:
- Currently, there are 1.5 billion mobile subscribers, which is up 1.1 billion from a year prior, a 30% growth - In 2011, there were fewer than a billion smartphone subscribers. By the end of 2012, that number grew to 1.5 billion subscribers.
And as
Tech Crunch points out from a recent Internet Trends report from Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, there are more than 5 billion phone subscribers in the world. Do some quick math, and this means there is tons of potential for mobile user growth. Great news right? Sure, if you're ready for it. The reason website owners should take note of this, particularly those in the industrial marketplace, is because Google has also noticed these trends. And since their goal is to always provide search engine users with optimal results and website experiences, they've begun to target and penalize poorly constructed mobile websites for not keeping mobile users in mind. This means as more and more people begin looking for your site on their smart phone or tablet, if you're not prepared for them, they'll never find you. But luckily, we can help. I began taking a closer look at mobile traffic after hearing others research on mobile trends myself. I wanted to see if this increase in mobile traffic was really wide spread across all sectors and industries, or at lest in the industrial marketplace where Ecreative does most of our work. Because while the trends report offers some impressive numbers in their observations of mobile traffic increases, they don't necessarily state what websites these users are visiting. I wondered, are these similar increases seen with any of my industrial clients? I've been working close with one such company that has kept an eye on their mobile traffic as well. As I referenced their data to this mobile trends report, I found similar information:
This is data pulled from an industrial website which averages over 6,000 unique visitors a month. They have an international presence, but offer country specific websites as well. This data is targeting North America traffic, but can come from anywhere. They sell equipment, assist with installs, and much more, to be a major industrial player. As we can see here, they've seen over a 100% increase in mobile traffic from June 2012 to June 2013. 100%! And there is no reason to think this trend will slow down, or that the trend is isolated. In fact, if you visited your Google Analytics mobile information section, I bet you'd see a similar monthly increase. So what have we done to make sure their website continues to increase in mobile traffic? How have we optimized their industrial website for mobile traffic? And how are we planning to prevent Google algorithm updates from hurting their rankings? First, let's take stock of what Google is looking for on mobile websites. In a recent
Google Developers update on mobile devices, they point out several areas of concern for industrial websites and their mobile domains. Of note:
- Don't have unplayable videos - Don't use faulty re-directs - No smartphone-only 404 errors - Irrelevant cross-linking - Reduce your page load speed - Mobile app suggestions
A couple of these stand out a bit more than the others, especially when we're talking industrial websites, page rankings, and keyword traffic. Let's explain some of these and offer suggestions on what to do to avoid ranking penalties.
Don't Have Unplayable Videos
This factor is definitely worth the conversation for industrial websites. I've pointed out why
videos are so important for industrial websites, but what hasn't been mentioned is how great YouTube is for hosting those videos. And it's great for a couple of reasons. First, it doesn't take up server space which the business pays for, and you don't have to build your own video viewing pop-ups, apps, or windows. The other benefit is if someone wants to watch a video on your mobile website and the video is hosted on YouTube, there is a better chance the video can be seen on their mobile device. Many mobile devices can't read specific video formats, so moving your videos to a mobile friendly service like YouTube becomes even more important when you start weighting mobile visitors. [caption id="attachment_2231" align="aligncenter" width="320"]
Credit: Google[/caption]
Don't Use Faulty Re-Directs
First, what are faulty re-directs? Think of them as a link on your website which sends someone to an unexpected page. For example, you're wanting to view a product, so you click on a link but you instead end up on the home page. Huh? That's not an intuitive path, and Google doesn't think so either. For mobile devices, the biggest culprit of these faulty re-directs is when people decide to "downgrade" their website for mobile devices, limiting the mobile site information, or not allowing the user to "view the full site" on their mobile device. Google offers a handy visual (seen above) to help explain this better for mobile sites. Directing visitors to your home page instead of providing a mobile version of a sub-page can now hurt your rankings. Which makes sense, too. If you don't provide a targeted page for Google to find on a mobile device, why should they rank you for it? Don't limit the mobile experience! This also ties into the line of "No smartphone-only 404 errors." If you don't have a certain page on your mobile device, the tendency has been to re-direct to the home page (which we just decided we wouldn't do anymore!) or to 404 the page, essentially making it unavailable and leaving the visitor grasping at the wind. Same lesson applies ... Don't limit the mobile experience!
Mobile App Suggestions
In an effort to provide the full website experience to their users, many industrial companies are offering mobile apps of their website. While this may be an option you'll want to consider, if you offer it to a visitor while they are on a mobile web browser version of your site, it may cause indexing issues for your site in Google, potentially hurting your page ranks. Google suggests offering app alerts in a couple of different, search engine friendly ways, but Ecreative also suggests building responsive design into your website. Details on responsive design are a bit too much to cover in this post here, but we'll have a blog on this topic in the near future. In the meantime,
learn more here. The conclusion on mobile websites is pretty obvious; mobile friendly websites are a must for any industrial website, and the potential for mobile visitors to your website is only going to increase. If your website has issues providing the optimal experience for mobile users,
contact Ecreative today to learn how we can help.
