At the start of the year Google confirmed that it will start to take ‘mobile friendliness’ into account as part of it’s search engine indexing. The change will take effect on 21 April and will be used to rank webpages in all languages.
Although it’s fairly unlikely you’ll have time to capitalise on Google’s announcement by creating a brand new webpage, it’s still a good idea to optimise your online store for mobile interaction and take advantage of the soaring popularity of mobile purchases.
You can get started with a free assessment of your online business using Google’s mobile-friendly test.
The trend
Smartphones and tablets were used to make 40% of all UK online retail sales in the last quarter of 2014. It’s the biggest increase in the rate of mobile retail penetration when compared with the same period in 2013, when mobile devices accounted for only 32% of online sales.
The improvements in broadband speeds and the huge strides retailers have made in upgrading and securing their platforms have eliminated the need for shoppers to be at home or in the office when they feel the need to spend. This also goes some way to explaining why smartphones are more popular than tablets for making online purchases.
The perks
Many small businesses are waking up to the importance of having a mobile strategy. Nearly a quarter (23%) of online small businesses surveyed be eBay and YouGov planned to have a mobile optimised site or app in the next 12 months. If that happens, more than half of all small businesses with an online presence can expect to see profits improve: 45% of businesses that ‘went mobile’ saw a related increase in sales.
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