{"id":190759,"date":"2015-04-22T08:41:12","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T15:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/blog\/measure-performance-googles-mobile-friendly-update\/"},"modified":"2015-04-22T08:43:03","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T15:43:03","slug":"how-to-measure-performance-against-googles-mobile-friendly-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/how-to-measure-performance-against-googles-mobile-friendly-update\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Measure Performance Against Google\u2019s Mobile Friendly Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"date\">April 21, 2015:<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2012\/07\/google-on-mobile.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[26558]\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2012\/07\/google-on-mobile-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Google on Mobile\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-9938\" \/><\/a>Last week my colleague <a href=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/author\/bcottam\/\">Brendan Cottam<\/a> detailed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/blog\/googles-upcoming-mobile-algorithm-update\/\">key aspects<\/a> of Google\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/searchengineland.com\/library\/google\/google-mobile-friendly-update\" >Mobile Friendly Update<\/a>, being released today. This update will\u00a0potentially give a ranking boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google\u2019s mobile search results.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve received questions about this update from clients and partners and the reality is that for the most part, the percentage of traffic from mobile devices, smart phones in particular, is much more limited than in other industries and markets.<\/p>\n<p>That said, we can practically guarantee percentages will increase over time as technology evolves and adoption to continues to increase as well. So this shift in focus and behavior to a mobile friendly browsing behavior must be part of the long-term online marketing strategy for B2B marketers.<\/p>\n<p>I recommend reviewing Brendan\u2019s outline of action items for B2B marketers assessing this announcement and also read key references made throughout and at the end of the post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In this blog post, I want to expand upon the exploration of\u00a0key performance benchmarks B2B marketers need to review in assessment of Google\u2019s Mobile Friendly Update.<\/p>\n<h2>Mobile Search Percentage<\/h2>\n<p>The first performance benchmark to evaluate is the growth in Google\u00a0search engine traffic from mobile devices over time.\u00a0The steps are as follows in Google Analytics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Google Analytics, go down to <em>Audience<\/em>, select\u00a0<em>Mobile,<\/em> and then <em>\u201cOverview\u201d<\/em> in the\u00a0left-hand navigation menu.<\/li>\n<li>Filter the\u00a0<em>Secondary dimension<\/em> button to view <em>Acquisition<\/em> and then\u00a0\u201c<em>Source \/ Medium<\/em>\u201c. You should then see a list of domains and applicable channel information from which you can isolate Google organic search referrals (see screenshot below).<em><br \/><\/em><\/li>\n<li>From here, you can now isolate and identify the percentage of Google organic traffic your website is receiving from mobile devices; smartphones specifically.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_26566\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone c3\" readability=\"32\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/google-percentages.png\" rel=\"lightbox[26558]\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26566 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/google-percentages.png\" alt=\"Google Organic Traffic Prcentages\" width=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot of all traffic broken out by device category and then source \/ medium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>To see Google organic traffic only, you can use the \u201c<em>Advanced Filter<\/em>\u201d and \u201c<em>Include<\/em>\u201d all \u201c<em>Source \/ Medium<\/em>\u201d references containing \u201c<em>Google<\/em>\u201d (see screenshot).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/advanced-filter.png\" rel=\"lightbox[26558]\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-26569\" src=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/advanced-filter.png\" alt=\"Google Analytics Advanced Filter\" width=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In this case, we know that of 12,000+ visits from Google, 9.82% of the search engines traffic to the website were from mobile devices.<\/p>\n<p>I recommend capturing this information, on a month by month basis, for at least the past few months, to understand the growth in impact mobile device adoption has on organic search referrals to your organization\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<h2>Quality of Mobile Search\u00a0Traffic<\/h2>\n<p>The next step is to compare the quality of Google organic search traffic between device types. Consider the following performance metrics when comparing mobile versus desktop search referrals:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>New Visitor Percentages<\/li>\n<li>Pages \/ Visit<\/li>\n<li>Bounce Rate<\/li>\n<li>Time on Site<\/li>\n<li>Conversion Rate \/ E-Commerce Transaction Rates<\/li>\n<li>And ideally, the quality of inbound leads from mobile versus desktop<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For the organization referenced above, which utilizes a mobile-friendly site design, the vast majority of these types of metrics are comparable and in some cases of higher quality.<\/p>\n<p>However in the example below, we have realized that the e-commerce transaction rate from Google organic search referrals on mobile devices is dramatically lower than those coming from desktop search.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/google-ecommerce-rates.png\" rel=\"lightbox[26558]\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-26571\" src=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/google-ecommerce-rates.png\" alt=\"Google Specific Ecommerce Rates\" width=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Prioritization has to be made for the user experience\u00a0smart phone specific search results. However keep in mind that less than 14% of Google organic traffic comes from mobile devices, so in this case the priority is being budgeted amongst a range of additional online marketing initiatives.<\/p>\n<h2>Mobile Search Benchmark Over Time<\/h2>\n<p>For B2B organizations considering the move to a mobile friendly site experience but have yet to pull the trigger in integration, it is important to keep track of performance benchmarks pre and post mobile algorithm update, on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n<p>While Google Analytics and traditional website reporting tools are important, they only show a view from what\u2019s happening \u201cinside\u201d. In other words, its difficult to know whether declines or improvements are related to algorithmic updates or other factors like competitive improvements, shifts in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/blog\/evolving-search-engine-results-page\/\">search result landscape<\/a>, seasonality, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Google Webmaster Tools <strong>Search Query<\/strong> reports provide additional insight into how your website appears in Google search engine listings based on performance of individual landing pages and specific keyword queries. These reports can be configured to view \u201c<em>Mobile Specific<\/em>\u201d results and performance.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/gwt-search-query-report.png\" rel=\"lightbox[26558]\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-26575\" src=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/gwt-search-query-report.png\" alt=\"Webmaster Tools Search Query Report\" width=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>B2B marketers can\u00a0run Google Webmaster Tools search query reports on a monthly basis to evaluate page performance and keyword visibility performance for all web activity, mobile device usage, and in comparison.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/example-gwt-page-data.png\" rel=\"lightbox[26558]\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-26578\" src=\"http:\/\/www.komarketingassociates.com\/images\/2015\/04\/example-gwt-page-data.png\" alt=\"Example of Comparative Landing Page Data\" width=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With this information on hand, you\u00a0will have better insight into whether the mobile algorithm is having a positive or negative impact on the mobile search visibility of your website.<\/p>\n<h2>The Competitive Landscape<\/h2>\n<p>Lastly, don\u2019t forget to review your competitor\u2019s online marketing strategies, to determine the extent to which the competition is ahead or behind the game as well.<\/p>\n<p>As indicated in Brendan\u2019s post referenced earlier, perform the\u00a0\u201csite:domain.com\u201d search for competitive websites to help answer the following questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are your competitors\u2019 homepages mobile-friendly?<\/li>\n<li>Are transactional landing pages of your B2B competitor\u2019s mobile-friendly?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If competitors have deeper mobile-friendly pages while you do not, they <em>could\u00a0<\/em>benefit come April 21st if non mobile-friendly pages are currently ranking ahead of them. Make note of each competitor and to the extent at which they are mobile to help discuss with internal stakeholders how to prioritize your mobile initiatives.<\/p>\n<h2>Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>Hopefully these performance benchmarks are of value as we make our way through Google\u2019s latest algorithm update. In summary, pay attention to the percentage of Google organic search traffic coming from mobile devices and the quality of that traffic in comparison to desktop search.<\/p>\n<p>Take note of how performance improves or declines over time through keyword visibility and landing page performance and make sure to understand how \u201cmobile friendly\u201d competitive websites appear as well.<\/p>\n<p><em>What have we missed and what other types of performance indicators are important to your organization?<\/em> I would love to hear your thoughts and perspective via comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 21, 2015: Last week my colleague Brendan Cottam detailed key aspects of Google\u2019s Mobile Friendly Update, being released today. This update will\u00a0potentially give a ranking boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google\u2019s mobile search results. We\u2019ve received questions about this update from clients and partners and the reality is that for the most part, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7515,"featured_media":93826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,36,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7515"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}