After much speculation, the idea that Google looks favorably on responsive websites. That is, those that have a mobile version.

Those who work with SEO already knew that this was a very important criterion for ranking a website organically (without ads). But now Google has officially published a bulletin stating that pages with a responsive design , that is, pages that are fully adapted to mobile devices, will have a better chance of achieving good positions in the list of results.

The text written by Fan Zhang, a software engineer at Google, reports that the decision was made after a year and a half of experimentation and testing.

Initially, tracking, indexing and ranking systems prioritized the desktop version of a website. However, with the increase in the use of smartphones to access the internet, this logic has changed significantly, as the version viewed on a computer can be very different from the one displayed on a mobile device.

“This means we will use the mobile version of the page first for indexing and ranking, to better help our users – especially those on mobile devices – find what they are looking for,” Google said in a statement.

Change in behavior encouraged the creation of responsive websites

According to the Information and brother cell phone list Technologies (ICT) Supplement of the National Household Sample Survey (Pnad), in 2014, smartphones surpassed computers for the first time in Brazilians’ preference for accessing the internet (80.4% versus 76.6%).

Just to give you an idea, today there are more than 236.2 million active mobile lines in Brazil , according to data from January of this year from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).

With the need to carry a cell phone with different features, there was an opening for new web experiences, which obviously extended to company websites. The more adaptable they are, the more engagement from customers and, consequently, more sales at the end of the month.

So, we believe you’re not too , are you? After all, your company’s website is responsive and won’t be by Google… Or will it? :O

Responsive websites: either you have it or you will by Google

You put a lot of effort into the layout of your company’s website, including all the information about products and services, and optimizing the unlike traditional strategies for the most relevant keywords for your business, but when the customer accesses your page on their cell phone, they encounter errors, images that don’t load, or data in different places.

Many companies go through this because they don’t think about creating responsive websites.

Google does not explicitly reveal the criteria it uses to rank a website on the first page. However, it is already that factors such as content. Website loading speed and even images with alt attributes are essential.

Now, with this announcement, we also confirm that a website without a mobile version can by the largest search engine in the world.

So, test it out and see how your website is navigable and loads on mobile phones and tablets. If you notice any problems, hurry up and adapt to Google’s requirements, otherwise you will lose space – and sales – to the competition.

READ MORE: The importance of smartphones in digital marketing strategies

Loading time also matters

We’ve already seen that responsive  are essential. But there’s another equally important factor among Google’s requirements for better ranking a page or another: loading speed.

No user has the patience to wait bulk lead than three seconds for a website to load, right? Google knows this well and has given the turtles an ultimatum.

Starting in 2018, slow-loading content may perform worse in search results. This clearly compromises the number of visits and, consequently, sales rates.