Impacts to your mobile presence post-Mobilegeddon

It’s been about a year since marketers were making big changes to websites to meet the demands of Google’s Mobilegeddon.

Marketers everywhere ensured their websites would meet the mobile-friendly requirement of Google, whether implementing a separate mobile site or converting to a responsive design (which Google recommended). We wanted to look at what’s happened since April 2015 in terms of mobile-friendliness across websites and other marketing tactics.

Mobilegeddon impacts:

• BrightEdge saw a 21% decrease in non-mobile-friendly URLs presented on the first three pages of search results, and page one results saw a 17.3% decrease
• About 50% of non-mobile-friendly websites saw a loss in page rank
• Branded searches still favor brand website, even if not mobile-friendly, but ranks poorly for other related keyword search queries
• Page speed becoming a high ranking factor in your ranking
• Search Engine Land says that, “having a mobile-optimized site leads to a better user experience, and not having one pretty much guarantees you’ll never make it onto the first page results.”

Post-Mobilegeddon impacts to the hospitality industry

After a mad dash to ensuring many properties’ websites were mobile-friendly, we’ve seen some significant increases of traffic and bookings from mobile devices, and it seems we’re not the only ones.

HeBS Digital found that in 2015, 20% of online bookings are created on non-desktop devices and 50% of website visitors are on a mobile device. Compare that to 2013 where less than 12% of bookings came from mobile devices. SiteMinder predicts, “That by 2018, the number of bookings via mobile will be closer to 38%.” HeBS Digital also believes that mobile bookings are no longer last-minute decisions but researched just as well as desktop reservations.

With mobile bookings on the rise, it’s essential that your website is designed for a mobile experience and has the ability to take reservations via a mobile device. No, we don’t mean having the guest call you to book from the phone they’re using to see your website. Google has always placed a focus on the user experience and that’s truer today than it was a year ago. Design your website for a mobile experience, make it fast, make it user-friendly, and make it easy to take action.

Besides your website, it’s imperative that your email marketing campaigns are mobile-friendly as 45% of email opens happen on mobile and 67.2% of consumers use their smartphone to check email. Your email campaigns should also create a smooth transition from the campaign back to your website and give direction on what action you want your reader to take.

Photo: verticalresponse.com

Upcoming mobile developments

Mobilegeddon was a big game changer and one of the few times Google has shared a ranking factor and algorithm change ahead of time and since April 2015, Google has been working on a project that aids in the mobile-friendly requirement and could be an important tool for many webmasters.

The Google-backed Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project began back in October 2015 and “Aims to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web… and webpages with rich content to load instantaneously.” Basically, AMP is HTML code to build light-weight webpages.

It’s always a good idea to talk to your web developer about other ideas or solutions to reducing your website’s speed and load time before implementing new code that could slow down your website even more if not executed correctly. For example, your web developer could recommend reducing file sizes or even the number of files that need to be downloaded, reducing image sizes, optimizing fonts for faster loading, or even timing of when certain elements or text appears on your site.

What changes have you made to your website since Mobilegeddon? Share some tips with your peers in our comments section below!

Want to know more about the repercussions of the mobile shift and our forecasting for this trend in the hospitality industry? Save your spot for our Mobile Recap & Forecasting webinar on May 19!