Search Has Changed, Are You Losing Out? (Part 2)

In part 1 of this series, we discussed the top three items you need to make sure you aren’t losing out when it comes to voice search. Today we continue with the last three items.

Getting mobile right

Speed then, is a critical part of a great website experience – especially for the more than 50% of mobile users that are visiting your website. How do you ensure that you provide the best possible experience? The answers are AMP, PWA and what we call a TrueMobile™ experience.

4. AMP: The fastest mobile experience

Google receives 60% of their queries from Mobile devices and the speed of websites continues to be a big concern for mobile users. AMP websites render 15% to 85% faster than the standard HTML format, leading to a better consumer experience and better engagement and conversion. Studies have shown that a one-second delay in page response results in 7% less conversions.

Google’s open source AMP project was originally conceived to make it easier for publishers to create compelling websites that were blazingly fast. AMP sites load 4x faster, in less than a second, and consume 10x less data. AMP sites offer a unique opportunity for hotels to provide a better user experience and visibility to their direct channel website. Read the latest on AMP impact from Milestone Research.

5. PWA: The backbone for the future of mobile

The second technology that’s critical in creating an ideal mobile experience for users is a fast and easy to use mobile website. At the heart of that mobile site needs to be an architecture that is lightweight and designed for speed and interactivity – and that’s Progressive Web Apps (PWA). With PWA, you can create a mobile site that feels and behaves like an app. Installable on the user’s mobile device, able to run cached without access to the internet, or when connectivity is poor, and able to deliver notifications to create better user engagement. PWA provides the same benefit to your mobile site that a great chassis and engine provide to your car. PWA won’t make your mobile site beautiful or easy to use, but it’s the perfect foundation for a strong, fast mobile experience.

TrueMobile™: The key to mobile conversions

The notion of “mobile first” design is not new, in fact, most agencies and designers claim to have a “mobile first” approach to design. In most instances, however, what you get is still a responsive website. For the right experience, however, your mobile website must take a different approach. Especially if you couple your mobile design with technology frameworks like PWA, having the right “mobile first”experience is critical.

At Milestone we are pioneering something we call “TrueMobile™” – TrueMobile is a set of design and development principles that focus on usability, user intent and mobile design in a way that creates the perfect experience for your users. Milestone TrueMobile™ sites are:

• Designed with user intent as the primary goal
• Leverage mobile UI/UX techniques like gestures
• Have UI elements that are large and easy to use
• Provide the right content at the right time, based on user intent
• Use images in the appropriate size based on the user’s device
• Are lightweight and leverage underlying technologies like PWA
• Are schema rich and provide high SEO visibility and compatibility with voice search engines

Putting it all together

Digital marketing is constantly evolving and knowing that the customer utilizes every modern channel to search for what they need, can help you tap into the conversion funnel with the right method. A strategy executed at the right time with the right tools can help you beat your competition. Find below some key action points for your search marketing strategy:

• Start with your website and ensure you are delivering a rich mobile optimized experience
• Invest in local search and SEO but a bit differently, deliver schema rich content in your answers to customers questions not links
• Google receives 60% of their queries from Mobile devices, design for mobile first experience
• Leverage the power of speed through AMP and engagements with PWA to deliver valuable online or offline experiences
• Lastly, speed is key to deliver a good mobile and search experience

Milestone’s team of experts work with over 2000 clients to help navigate this rapidly evolving digital and search marketing space. Send us an email at sales@milestoneinternet.com or call us at +1 408 200 2211 with your questions or comments.