Google has permanently changed the way people look for information.
People are naturally curious, and we have A LOT of questions that need answers. Often, the fastest way to find a legitimate answer to our questions is to grab our phone and search them on Google. The keyword here is “fastest”. People genuinely care about how fast a website loads.
53{d4b17f0732e4c495eee51c03ad16a7030b4f9cb6b01c343ccd4bc177abc39f72} of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load.*
Research and common sense tells us that if a website is slow to load on a phone, people will leave. Google has recognized this, and on it’s quest to “provide the best quality search results”, it is focusing more on burying websites that have slow load times. As Canada moves more and more towards increased mobile internet browsing, business websites should be built to accommodate customers that search on their phones.
One clear way to ensure your website is built for success is to ensure it’s “mobile-friendly”.
If you’ve ever browsed a business website that’s not “mobile-friendly” it should come as no surprise as to why this matters. This is another ranking factor that Google puts massive emphasis on. Mobile-friendly websites generally rank higher for searches than sites that aren’t.
If you’re considering a new website for your business, ask your web designer about what they’re doing to ensure fast page load speeds.
In order to build your business on Google and compete for local searches, your website needs a to be built with a proper foundation. By foundation we mean: Mobile-friendliness, fast page speed/load times, and on a powerful CMS, such as WordPress. Once a strong foundation is established, the fun begins. And with some good content and clean design work, your site will be ready for the next step: an online marketing campaign that converts visitors into customers.
*Source: Industry Benchmarks for mobile page load speeds
