Google is set to roll out a new “Speed Update” feature to boost mobile-optimised content in search engine rankings. A new study from Searchmetrics shows that pages tailored for smartphones are already performing much better overall.
The new update will arrive next month as Google continues its focus on serving up super-fast content on mobile devices. Time is certainly of the essence for brands that are not mobile-ready, as the study indicates they are already falling behind. Their poorer ranking results are likely to be even more pronounced when the update goes live in July.
Searchmetrics analysed thousands of organic mobile searches to gather the data for its study, titled Mobile Speed Study 2018. The major takeaway is that the content ranking at the very top of SERPs loads significantly faster compared to pages farther down the page. In many cases, the faster-loading content loads in less than a second.
Google has been at the forefront of mobile-optimised content with its AMP initiative, and the study found that pages using this open standard feature on the first page for six out of ten searches. Google says AMP doesn’t provide a boost to rankings by default, but it does provide a better user experience, which is one of the reasons why these pages perform so well.
“The research suggests there is already some correlation between page speed and mobile rankings − and Google’s Speed Update is only going to make this stronger,” Searchmetrics Director for Marketing & Communication, Cliff Edwards said. “So webmasters need to be continually testing and finding ways to optimise their web pages for speed. Overall this is going to mean plenty of work for many sites as even in the top five positions 32% of search results took longer than three seconds to load.”
The media industry was one of the first to adopt AMP en masse, and the study shows that 87% of media-related searches deliver at least one of these optimised pages. This result puts media well ahead of other sectors, such as finance (67%), travel (56%) and e-commerce (59%).
Edwards added: “While AMP content most commonly appears in topical news and media related searches – for which it was originally intended − it is also now seen in over half of the first page results in finance, e-commerce and travel searches. So there is evidence that some non-media sites are starting to take advantage of the user experience and speed benefits of AMP.”
Content consumption on smartphones is soaring around the world, so it makes sense for brands to optimise their content and SEO strategies to account for mobile’s growing dominance. The new Speed Update feature will finally make page load speed a determining factor in SERPs, and Google is likely to continue its push to serve up faster and more relevant content for users. Moving forward, brands still need to do more to ensure they are at the top of the pack in terms of quick-loading content.
