Digital Marketing Blog | ClickThrough Marketing

Websites Are Going Mobile-Friendly, But Many Big Brands Are Yet to Switch

Written by Oliver Pyper | 22 Apr 2015

Google says the number of websites that meet its mobile-friendly criteria has risen 4.7% in the last two months - but many big companies are still to implement mobile-friendly sites.

Google revealed the figure in its blog post announcing the launch of its mobile-friendly algorithm yesterday. It also said it hopes "to see even more [mobile-friendly websites] in the coming months".

Unfortunately, Google may have a little longer to wait until its ambitions to fruition - recent studies show that many well-known websites are lagging behind in the mobile usability race.

For instance, 46% of Fortune 500 companies and a quarter of top retailers didn't have websites with 'mobile-friendly' labels at the start of April, according to Merkle research quoted by The Wall Street Journal.

And a study by mobile marketing firm Somo revealed brands like Kellogs UK, Dyson, Nintendo, David Beckham and American Apparel had failed to implement mobile-friendly websites, as of last week.

Notably, the BBC launched a mobile-friendly, responsive version of its popular news site last month. However, a BBC spokesperson told us the timing of the launch was driven by UK election coverage, rather than any Google considerations.

Merkle research director Mark Ballard told The Wall Street Journal: "A lot of sites haven't still invested resources into a site that works well on mobile, and consumers using the mobile web have been frustrated by that," adding that "Google's change will probably pull the stragglers into the 21st century."

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