With mobile officially surpassing desktop search, Google have confirmed that search engines will now index and rank your website based on the mobile experience the user will receive when they land on your website.

Although many factors contribute to an engaging mobile experience, speed is certainly key, with most visitors are likely to abandon a mobile site visit if the landing page takes more than a few seconds to load.

For those of you who subscribe to our Cheshire Web Design Web Grower newsletter, you will know that we often report on the latest news, reviews and advice on how to grow your website. In an effort to slightly shake things up, going forward we will look to offer free tools all website owners can look to use to help their website grow with the first being two free tools to use to help your mobile experience grow starting with test my Website and Speed Scorecard…

Test My Website – Test your mobile speed score

Test My Site is a free online assessment tool allowing businesses to easily measure their sites’ performance across all mobile, tablet and desktop devices. Offering industry leading insight, Test My Site examines where your website is performing well, along with providing a list of specific detailed fixes to help encourage visitors to connect more quickly when landing on your website.

By simply entering your URL web address, within moments businesses owners will be presented with a snapshot of how their website scores across numerous elements.

Users can also easily request a free, much more detailed report which offers further tips and advice on where you can improve your website, along with an average loading time and estimated loss of visitors which is calculated based on your chosen industry. As a professional Cheshire web agency, we have often found these reports useful when looking to improve on speed scores on several of our WordPress websites.

Digesting your free Test My Website Report

Loading Time – The speed index calculates how long the visible content of your page takes to appear using Chrome on a 3G based network. Speed times may vary if your website contains carrousels or larger image galleries as this may impact loading times based on server location, device and browser.

Estimated Visitor Loss – This is the probability calculated of a user leaving your landing page based on your chosen industry and loading time

Industry Comparison – Based on the fastest 30% of industry websites loading times in your industry, comparison results are calculated based on Google research of over five million web pages represented in the top performing sites.

Speed Up – Although the actions will likely require your Cheshire Web Design Agency, the free report features ‘Speed Up’ which lists a detailed list of points to help speed your website up, all colour coded so you can priories tasks. The insight also predicts how much quicker your website will load if these changes are addressed.

think with Google – Winning on Mobile

Although this tool is in early beta testing so only major websites will be recognised, this is a tool our Cheshire Web Design Agency will highly recommend in 2018!

Speed Scorecard

Filtering by county and connection speed, the ‘think with Google’ tool will allow users to compare up to ten domains, ranking them based from fastest to slowest. While the tool only headlines speed, instead of offering a detailed analysis of how/why they generated the score, this tool is a great way to carry out competitor research, allowing you to see which of your competitors are ahead and behind you when optimising your mobile site speed.

Calculate the Potential Revenue Impact

Although this tool is more complex than the Speed Scorecard, this does however, offer much more valuable data, although you will have to have access to your Google Analytics account in order to fill out the data.

Current Speed – Once you have ran the Mobile Speed Scorecard, you will be presented with your current speed score

Average Monthly Visitors – You can easily find this data in Google Analytics. Simply navigate to Audience >> Mobile. If you have one our Cheshire Web Agency subscription packages, simply let us know and we will give you access to Analytics.

Average Order Value – This will only apply to e-commerce websites, e.g. if you have an online shop. To find this information, access Google Analytics and find Conversations >> E-Commerce

Conversion Rate (%) – Again, this only applies to e-commerce websites. On Analytics, you can access this information by clicking on Average Order Value, which will then generate a percentage of your mobile traffic which converts into a sale.

Once all data has been entered, you will be presented with an impact calculator. Starting from your current website speed, you can adjust the slider and the tool will predict the potential annual revenue you could earn from improving your speed score.

*Figures used for the calculator were used for the example of the screenshot and have nothing to do with Argos.

Cheshire Web Design Agency Conclusion

With mobile expected to surpass desktop search for the next number of a years, it’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to adapt and evolve to their websites so they are not only fully responsive, but also present an engaging mobile experience.

If you would like any assistance with any of these tools, have any of your own you wish to share, or would like to get in touch with your professional Cheshire web agency about improving your mobile presence, get in touch with the WordPress experts!

For more information on the art of growing your website, please subscribe to our Web Grower Newsletter.