Let's discuss the next factor, namely Google's search engine. Just like more and more people are viewing digital content on mobile devices, more and more Google searches are occurring on mobile devices as well. This led Google to announce back in June 2013 that they were going to start penalizing websites that offered poor mobile experiences.
They later followed that up with another announcement that they would also begin penalizing websites that loaded slowly on mobile devices. Then in February, 2016 Google made a major change to its search layout to make it more mobile-friendly. They moved to a single column format for their search results, in effect eliminating sidebar search results. They also expanded the number of paid search results in that single column and reduced the number of natural search results. The net result of all these changes was greater competition for first page natural search results, and a strong emphasis on rewarding websites with great mobile experiences.
What does this all mean for artists? Well, if you want to ensure that you rank well on Google then you better have a website that looks good and loads quickly on mobile devices. As a matter of fact, you should probably make sure that your mobile experience is even better than your desktop experience. Because if it isn't, all of your search rankings may suffer.
So what's an artist to do? Our FASO members have access to our platform that is built from the ground up to deliver beautiful, engaging Mobile Responsive Websites that load very quickly. Best of all, there's nothing special our members have to do.
