LOS ANGELES, October 10, 2013 (ADOTAS) – The Search Agency, a global online marketing firm and the largest independent U.S. search marketing agency, today released its Mobile Experience Scorecard: Fortune 100 Companies, which looks at how some of the largest, most well-recognized companies are adapting to the new mobile landscape via Google’s best practices. The Search Agency’s team of mobile experts evaluated the mobile sites of Fortune 100 companies to determine which were most closely aligned with established mobile marketing best practices.
“With Google’s recent algorithm updates such as Hummingbird and their increased emphasis on the mobile experience, we created the mobile experience scorecard to assess how some of America’s largest companies are presenting their brands to mobile users. And were frankly surprised by the results,” said Grant Simmons, Director (pictured), SEO and Social Product at The Search Agency. “Consumers expect that they can easily interact with their favorite brands online while on the go, and businesses that do not provide mobile-friendly experiences risk losing valuable search traffic and alienating mobile users. And it’s not just large companies – businesses of all sizes need to consider how they are catering to mobile audiences and benchmark their mobile-readiness against industry standards.”
The Mobile Experience Scorecard calculated a total score out of a possible five points – one being the lowest and a score of five being the highest possible – for each of the Fortune 100’s mobile sites. Analysis was based on five factors: load speed, site format, calculated download speed, social media presence, and app presence. The analysis was based on both quantitative factors established by industry best practices and Google, and a series of qualitative factors.
Despite the sizable budgets and big brand names of these companies, the results were surprising.
Although Google has established Responsive Web Design (RWD) as the industry best practice for serving the same HTML across devices, the top 20 sites that ranked the highest on the mobile scorecard used dedicated mobile sites rather than RWD.
Of the 100 sites, only nine overall used RWD. Of the remaining 91 companies, 47 used dedicated mobile sites, while the other 44 did not provide a separate mobile experience from the desktop version of their site.
None of the sites met all of the set criteria; therefore, none of the Fortune 100 companies achieved a perfect score of five.
The average page load time was about 5 seconds, well above Google’s one-second recommendation.
The average score for all companies in the study was 2.31 out of five.
And the winners are…
Coca-Cola and FedEx tied for first place with a score of 4.49
TIAA-CREF and Walgreens tied for third place with a score of 4.24
Liberty Mutual ranked in fifth place with a score of 4.19
To see the full methodology and download a copy of the report, please visit: http://www.thesearchagency.com/classroom/research/.
About The Search Agency
The Search Agency is a global online marketing firm that combines high-tech and high-touch strategies to help clients engage their customers online and measure ROI beyond a reasonable doubt. With a deep-rooted history in paid search and SEO, The Search Agency understands how activity on the web intersects at search, and executes smart digital marketing strategies that drive measurable results across multiple platforms. Services include Paid Search, SEO, Landing Page Optimization, Display Media, Social Media and Comparison Shopping Management, which are strategically leveraged to maximize the efficacy of clients’ integrated marketing campaigns. The company is one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing search marketing firms – named the largest independent U.S. search marketing agency by Advertising Age and among Deloitte’s 2011 Technology Fast 500™. Founded in 2002, The Search Agency has grown to more than 180 employees worldwide with headquarters in Los Angeles, CA, and additional offices in San Francisco, East Greenwich, Baltimore, London, Sydney, Toronto and Bangalore. For more information, go to http://www.thesearchagency.com.
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