Speed matters for your Mobile Page.

Starting July 2018, Google will be implementing a new algorithm, called the “Speed Update”. It will focus on ranking mobile results higher or lower based on their loading speed. This was something we predicted a long time ago, and our products are ready for this! But let’s get into the exact specifics of what’s going to happen in July.

Who will be affected the most?

It’s obvious that the web has gotten out of control with responsive website templates. Most of them built by developers that pack them nicely just to be eye candy. However they don’t really care about optimising them. It’s sad to see beautifully crafted websites that load in over 5-10 seconds on Mobile devices. These pages can have great content and great SEO and get ranked higher in search results. However if you take a closer look at these pages, the only deciding design factor about them are the images. They are usually way, way too big for mobiles and tones of code placed in all the wrong places. Google is taking matters into their own hands, and for good reason, these pages will now officially rank lower than a page that loads faster.

What does this mean for you?

Let’s say you have a responsive website, that’s poorly optimised, and you’re selling products or services. Maybe you were ranked top high in search results but your page took a bit to load on mobile devices. If so, chances are starting July you’ll see a large decrease in visitors coming from Google. However, Google states that if you have great content, and your page is slow, you can still rank higher. BUT, and this is a big but, how and by whom is great content determined, and does your competitor have even better content than you?

Should I go Mobile Dedicated on AMP?

There won’t be a large difference between the two. Google bases this update on the load time on mobile results. So comparing a desktop / responsive page to a Mobile Dedicated or AMP Page, you’ll still load much, much, much faster!

• We recommend AMP for users with very static content. AMP is a great technology, but we have seen it fail miserably in WordPress, Joomla, WooCommerce and other CMS pages. This happens because your awesome designed page on desktop stands no chance of providing the same content in AMP’s less powerful framework. So, if you’re a restaurant, a lawyer,  fast food service, photographer, a freelancer, AMP is the way for you. Set it up, add your content, and you’re ready to go.
• We recommend HTML, CSS, JS, WordPress and other platforms but dedicated, and mobile friendly if you have dynamic content, changing extremely often and where the design of your content is of importance to you. If you want to have any effect that requires JavaScript on a mobile device, then stay away from AMP.

Both worlds will give you a massive, massive speed increase. And we’ve got a tone of products , both AMP and Mobile Dedicated that will help you achieve your desired outcome.

I already have a website. I need to optimize it. Where do I start?

It’s simple. First, head on over to GTMetrix and analyze your page. GTMetrix will check your page based on Google’s requirements and YSlow. This will provide you with a comprehensive list of things that are not optimized and detailed explanations on how to improve them.

Secondly, always, and we mean ALWAYS optimise your images. We can recommend ShortPixel and TinyPNG for great image compression without loss in quality.

Last but not least, and probably the most important factor of them all. If you’re using a purchased Theme or Template, be sure it comes from a quality developer. Choose one that has page speed and load times in mind. A 5 second load time can mean a 40% bounce rate increase ( users that leave before the page loads ) and mostly, a massive derank in both Google Mobile and Desktop results.