MMW was privy to the findings of a new report out this week that many publishers will want to take note of.
News and information publishers who enable fast-loading Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for Google searches now overwhelmingly top mobile search results, suggesting holdouts are increasingly likely to lose readership and advertising revenue, new Searchmetrics research finds.
“Some 78% of news-related results on the first page of mobile screens are AMP-enabled, according to Searchmetrics latest study, Ranking Factors for the Media Industry,” a provided statement reads. “In desktop Google searches too, the data suggests high-ranking content from online media and publishers will prioritize the user experience. High-ranking content is significantly more relevant to the search query, uses more words in the text to cover topics more comprehensively, and includes more links to direct searchers to related information on other sites.”
“This study is designed to provide advice and observations to web publications, company blogs, online news sites and other publishers who are all competing for traffic and revenue as sources of news and topical information,” said Marcus Tober, CTO and founder of Searchmetrics.
Online media and publishing is a highly competitive field, relying mainly on advertising for revenue. In an era of so-called fake news, relevance to the search query is becoming even more important for success.
The research analyzed desktop search results on Google.com for 6,000 keyword terms relevant to the media industry (examples include Kim Kardashian, Science News, Net Neutrality and Weather NYC). The findings were compared with the company’s separate, benchmark Google ranking factors study which tracked the results from 10,000 general, high search volume keywords that apply across all industries.
To download the full report, click here.
