Member Article

Adtrak advises businesses to run faster and rank higher

Leading digital marketing agency, Adtrak, is calling for businesses to respond to Google’s new speed update, to ensure their website is not left at the bottom of the rankings.

Currently, 53% of worldwide website traffic is generated via a mobile device. As a result, more businesses are realising the importance of having a website which functions well across mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers.

Therefore, it was no surprise that Google announced a new update in January targeting the increase in mobile phone use and prioritising website speed.

The update, which came into effect in July, involves a new ranking algorithm designed specifically for mobile search. This means, for the first time, website page speed is considered a ranking factor for mobile searches.

Page speed has been a ranking factor for desktop searches since 2010. In layman’s terms, this means that Google ranks web pages based on certain elements, such as search terms, content and security. If two sites are considered equally relevant to a search, Google will give preference to the site that loads faster - placing it higher in the search results pages.

Chris Robinson, Managing Director at Adtrak, said: “Page speed is how fast a website page loads and it has been a vitally important aspect of successful web design for many years.

“A slow loading website is incredibly off-putting to website visitors and research has shown that if a website takes longer than three seconds to load, 41% of visitors would give up and leave the site completely. However, until now, speed being a factor in ranking has only affected desktop searches. Google’s new algorithm update is focused on searches which take place on a mobile device.”

According to industry research, the update has so far had little impact on search results. However, the speed at which a web page loads is still a hugely important factor in determining its position within the search engine results, so experts still recommend prioritising load speed.

In addition, research has shown that since the Google speed update has been implemented, the overall performance of web pages has increased.

Chris added: “Web design standards are on the rise across all industries, whether this be in the form of page speed, site security, user experience or quality content. It’s vital for businesses to keep up with this trend and prioritise quality web design and digital marketing.”

For more information, visit www.adtrak.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rebecca .