A substantial minority of the largest U.S. companies do not have a mobile or mobile-compatible website, even as consumer usage makes a dramatic shift away from the desktop PC, and mobile accounts for 26% of search traffic globally.
According to a recent study from Pure Oxygen Labs, 44% of the Fortune 100 have no mobile content strategy.
Only 56% served mobile-optimized content: 45% had dedicated mobile sites, while 11% deployed responsive design.
This is important because Google is revising its rankings to favor sites that are optimized for mobile, placing a renewed importance on mobile search engine optimization. Not to mention, Google recommends responsive design as a best practice.
At BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s paid subscription service, we recently analyzed over 15 datasets culled from a variety of sources to probe the reasons why it’s vital to have a real mobile strategy, and we examined the advantages and disadvantages of one: responsive design. We published our insights in a recent report, “The Rise Of Responsive Design As A Mobile Strategy, The Pros And Cons.”
The changes to Google’s rankings are expected to go into effect in September and October. Unless they comply with Google’s recommendations that sites be mobile-optimized , a substantial number of major companies could see their search results adversely affected.
Meanwhile, mobile accounted for 26% of traffic to search engines last quarter (up from 24% in the first quarter), according to a study from RKG. (See chart, below.)
