Earlier this year Google updated their search algorithm to take into account if a website is mobile friendly or not. How has this update affected website rankings and their traffic?
Here’s some examples of websites and how they rank for desktop and mobile searches:
| Domain | Desktop Ranking | Smartphone Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| potterybarnkids.com | 5 | 11 |
| Bargainist.com | 7 | 16 |
| Moz.com | 3 | 13 |
| atu2.com | 11 | 23 |
| MusixMatch.com (mobile-friendly) | 11 | 5 |
| boxofficemojo.com | 8 | 19 |
| tomsguide.com | 9 | 45 |
You can see from the results that the non-mobile-friendly site rankings where considerably lower than desktop rankings, and the only mobile-friendly site in the list had a better ranking for mobile search results!
Most Blaze Commerce clients are seeing traffic volumes from mobile visitors at around the 50% mark. Some are lower, some much higher, approaching 80% of their traffic coming from mobile devices, but the message is clear – if your site isn’t mobile friendly, you’re search engine rankings are suffering.