The Age of Smartphones and Anywhere Access
The rise of smartphones has truly come of age – it has, in fact, reached its peak. Evidence of this is Google’s algorithm update in 2015, “mobilegeddon,” which prioritizes mobile-friendly websites. This proves how much of an impact smartphones and other smartphones have on our everyday lives.
Accessibility and Mobile Optimization
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) today, mobile usability is something you would want to focus on if you want your web site to rank higher. Given that 90% of 18-24 year-olds, a parcel of the generation most inclined to using the internet, own a smart phone, it is but necessary to focus on mobile optimization if you want to reach this audience.
The facts tell the story. C1 Partners is an SEO company in Denver that cites the importance of mobile responsiveness. They state that in 2014, the number of mobile users exceeded the population of desktop users on a global level. Google searches on mobile devices have surpassed desktop searches as well. A year later, Google confirms that mobile usability is indeed a determining factor in ranking on SERP’s.
Here are the data that necessitates mobile optimizations:
- Adobe says that 39% of mobile users will stop engaging with a website if its images fail to load.
- Comscore cites that between the years December 2013 and December 2015, internet browsing on smart phones yielded a 78% growth.
- Lastly, Skillcrush qualifies the efficacy of mobile searches. 70% of these led to user response.
With the accessibility that mobile devices provide, it comes as no surprise that people now prefer to use their devices for speed and convenience.
The Future of SEO
Mobile optimization remains to be a part of SEO’s future. Along with RankBrain, the Knowledge Graph and Rich Answers, as well as real-time penalty filters, accelerated mobile pages (AMP) is among the four pillars of how SEO will continue to change the realm of digital marketing.
For a business to increase its reach, one has to make the most of this age of smartphones and reconfigure the responsiveness of their websites for mobile use.
