This Week in Digital Marketing: Google’s Mobile Speed Algorithm Update Released

Google has officially released their algorithm update that targets mobile speed. They’re calling it the “Speed Update”, and its purpose is to demote sites that are too slow on mobile.

Here’s their tweet announcing the update:

What’s different and great about this update, though, is that they’ve not only acknowledged it and even warned us about it in the past, but also provided more information on exactly what this update covers and how it’ll affect mobile rankings.

What Google’s Speed Update Means for Your Website

Thankfully, Google has said that only a small portion of SERPs will be affected, and mobile sites will only be demoted if they’re very slow.

Here’s how they explain it:

The “Speed Update,” as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.

That’s great, but you shouldn’t just ignore it and assume your website is fine. This is a great time to evaluate the speed of your website on mobile and make improvements if and where they’re warranted. Even if your site is fast enough to not be affected by this update, there’s never a bad time to improve the user experience on your site.

Test Your Mobile Site Speed

The easiest way to test your mobile site speed is to run it through Google’s site speed tools:

1. Think with Google’s Mobile Speed Test
2. Think with Google’s Mobile Site Speed Comparison Tool
3. PageSpeed Insights
4. Lighthouse

Fix Your Mobile Site Speed

Did you find some issues when you tested your mobile site speed? The best way to improve those issues is to work with an experienced mobile developer.

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