This is our third post in our "SEO Myths That Need To Die In 2017" series.
If you want to check out our previous post, you can find it here: SEO Myth #2: SEO is all about the right Keywords.
SEO Myth #3: Mobile Optimization Is Overrated
In the spring of 2015, Google had an algorithm update which expanded Google’s use of mobile- friendliness as a ranking signal and penalizes those that aren’t fully optimized for mobile in mobile search results.
The change was so significant that SEO Industry Leaders like, Search Engine Land, we’re calling it mobilegeddon.
Hubspot did an analysis of more than 15'000 of their sites and saw that websites that weren't mobile optimized saw a decline of 5% in traffic.
It's interesting to note that content marketing company, BrightEdge, tracked over 20,000 URLs since the update, and is reporting a 21% decrease in nonmobile-friendly URLs on the first 3 pages of search results. The impact is more significant on pages 2-3, while page 1 results have only seen a 17.3% decrease. They write:
We hypothesize that because other ranking factors are weaker on the second and third pages of search results that the mobile-friendliness of a URL had a bigger impact on rank than it did on the first page.
Non mobile-friendly sites are dropping from page one results. Having a mobile-optimized site leads to a better user experience, and not having one pretty much guarantees you’ll never make it on the first page results.
If your web presence screams 2009, you should be thinking about bringing your site up to date. Many website providers now have mobile responsive themes as their standard defaults.
Next week we'll be talking about SEO Myth #4: SEO is about ranking #1 on Google.
