Facebook made an important announcement on August 2, 2017: That it would change its algorithm to penalize websites that are not mobile-friendly.
According to Facebook,
We’re always listening to our community to understand how we can improve their experience of News Feed. We’ve heard from people that it’s frustrating to click on a link that leads to a slow-loading webpage. In fact, even more broadly on the internet, we’ve found that when people have to wait for a site to load for too long, they abandon what they were clicking on all together. As many as 40 percent of website visitors abandon a site after three seconds of delay.
Facebook will prioritize posts within the News Feed that will load quickly on mobile, “so that users can spend m ore time reading the stories they find relevant.”
Social Media Today reports that Facebook’s update is much like Google’s push to give priority to mobile optimized sites. The popular social media blog also noted that 94% of Facebook users access the social network via a mobile device.
If you’re running a slow or outdated site, there’s time to act, Facebook says:
This update will roll out gradually over the coming months. We anticipate that most Pages won’t see any significant changes to their distribution in News Feed. Webpages that are particularly slow could see decreases in referral traffic. To help webpages avoid experiencing potential decreases, we’re sharing tips to help site owners make their site faster and more mobile-friendly.
Not sure if this algorithm update will impact you? Set up a website audit with us, or work with us to get your site optimized. Contact us here.
Tags: algorithm, Facebook, news feed, Social Media, web design, website