SEO

Where We Are Today With Google’s Mobile-First Index

Published

2 years ago

June 30, 2022

Where We Are Today With Google’s Mobile-First Index

Okay, so it’s been a few years now since Google announced the mobile-first index.

Most sites have been moved over to Google’s mobile-first index and it’s no longer a “hot” topic in SEO.

I found a tweet from John Mueller, Google Search Advocate, in 2021 that sums up the lack of focus on this topic the best:

My guess is mobile-first indexing has been ongoing for so many years now that it’s more like a “part of life” :). @maxxeight also has a neat tool for testing at https://t.co/r9gFpp95uO . Most sites are moved over, so I don’t expect giant fluctuations.
— 🐐 John 🐐 (@JohnMu) March 12, 2021

Going with that mentality that mobile-first indexing is a “part of life” (which I wholeheartedly agree with), as an SEO, it is helpful to know some of the history and where we are today.

For instance, since the announcement of the mobile-first index years ago, Google has now also placed emphasis on Page Experience, which is a ranking factor and very much incorporates mobile.

Before we jump into that topic, let’s first get into the beginnings of the mobile-first index and what we know so far.

Then, we’ll get into what Google is looking for in mobile usability, what it means to have an identical experience on mobile and desktop, how you can meet Google’s expectations of mobile-first best practices, and more.

Google’s Mobile-First Indexing

No, There Are Not Two Indexes

Google has stated that there isn’t a separate mobile-first index.

Instead, mobile-first indexing means Google primarily uses the mobile version of the webpage for ranking and indexing purposes.

In 2018, Google explained that with mobile-first indexing, the URL of the mobile-friendly version of your site is indexed.

If your website has separate mobile and desktop URLs, Google shows the mobile URL to mobile users and the desktop URL to desktop users.

Regardless, the indexed content will be the mobile version.

Shifting To The Mobile-First Index

At the end of 2017, Google announced that it would start slowly rolling out mobile-first indexing.

By March 2018, Google stated that they were expanding the rollout and instructed websites to prepare.

Fast forward three years later and not all websites have been switched over to the mobile index.

In June 2020, Google stated that while most websites were set to mobile indexing, there were still many that were not.

Google announced at that point that instead of switching in September 2020, it would delay mobile-first indexing until March 2021.

Google cited a number of issues encountered with sites as a reason for delaying the rollout, including problems with robots meta tags, lazy-loading, blocked assets, primary content, and mobile images and videos.

Eventually, Google removed its own self-imposed deadline in November 2021 explaining that there were still sites that were not yet in the mobile-first index because they weren’t ready to be moved over.

Google went on to say that the lack of readiness was due to several unexpected challenges faced by these websites.

According to Google, “because of these difficulties, we’ve decided to leave the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.”

Google also stated that “we currently don’t have a specific final date for the move to mobile-first indexing and want to be thoughtful about the remaining bigger steps in that direction.”

Mobile-First Indexing As The Default For New Websites

If your website was published after July 1, 2019, mobile-first indexing is enabled by default.

Google made this announcement in May 2019 and explained that the change applied to websites that were previously unknown to Google Search.

The announcement went into detail about why Google would make mobile-first indexing the default for new websites.

According to Google, after crawling the web with a smartphone Googlebot over the years, they concluded that new websites are typically ready for this type of crawling.

Mobile Usability And Mobile-First Indexing Are Not Synonyms

In January 2019, Mueller explained that if your content does not pass the mobile usability test, it could still be moved to mobile-first indexing.

Even if Search Console’s “mobile usability” report showed that your site had valid URLs, it didn’t mean those pages were ready for mobile-first indexing.

Mobile usability is “completely separate” from mobile-first indexing, according to Mueller. Consequently, pages could be enabled for mobile-first indexing even if they were not considered usable on a mobile device.

You can hear Mueller’s explanation in the video below, starting at the 41:12 mark:

“So, first off, again mobile usability is completely separate from mobile-first indexing.
A site can or cannot be usable from a mobile point of view, but it can still contain all of the content that we need for mobile-first indexing.
An extreme example, if you take something like a PDF file, then on mobile that would be terrible to navigate. The links will be hard to click, the text will be hard to read.
But all of the text is still there, and we could perfectly index that with mobile-first indexing.
Advertisement

Mobile usability is not the same as mobile-first indexing.”

In summary, mobile-friendliness and mobile-responsive layouts are not mandatory for mobile-first indexing.

Since pages without mobile versions still work on a mobile device, they were eligible for indexing.

The Mobile & Desktop Experiences Should Be The Same

Google added to their mobile-first indexing best practices in January 2020, and the big emphasis was on providing an identical experience on mobile and desktop.

Matt Southern provided a great summarized list of what Google meant by the same experience:

Ensuring Googlebot can access and render mobile and desktop page content and resources.
Making sure the mobile site contains the same content as the desktop site.
Using the same meta robots tags on the mobile and desktop site.
Using the same headings on the mobile site and desktop site.
Making sure the mobile and desktop sites have the same structured data.

Google warns that if you purposefully serve less content on the mobile version of a page than the desktop version, you will likely experience a drop in traffic.

The reason? According to Google, they won’t be able to get as much information from the page as before (when the desktop version was used).

Instead, Google recommends that the primary content on the mobile site be the same as on the desktop site. Google even suggests using the same headings on the mobile version.

To drive this point home, even more, Google mentions in its mobile-indexing documentation that only the content on the mobile site is used in indexing.

Therefore, you should be sure that your mobile site has the same content as your desktop site.

Mueller reiterated this fact during Pubcon Pro Virtual 2020 with the following comment:

“…we’re now almost completely indexing the web using a smart phone Googlebot, which matches a lot more what users would actually see when they search.
And one of the things that we noticed that people are still often confused about is with regards to, like if I only have something on desktop, surely Google will still see that and it will also take into account the mobile content.
But actually, it is the case that we will only index the mobile content in the future.
Advertisement

So when a site is shifted over to mobile first indexing, we will drop everything that’s only on the desktop site. We will essentially ignore that.
…anything that you want to have indexed, it needs to be on the mobile site.”

You can read more about Mueller’s comments here: Google Mobile-First Index – Zero Desktop Content March 2021.

Google’s Mobile-First Indexing Best Practices

Google provides a comprehensive list of best practices for mobile-first indexing “to make sure that your users have the best experience.”

Most of the information Google shares as best practices is not really new.

Instead, the list is a compilation of various recommendations and advice that Google has provided elsewhere over the years.

In addition to the list of recommendations above about creating the same experience on mobile and desktop, other best practices include:

Making sure the error page status is the same on the mobile and desktop sites.
Avoiding fragment URLs in the mobile site.
Making sure the desktop pages have equivalent mobile pages.
Verifying both the mobile and desktop sites in Search Console.
Checking hreflang links on separate mobile URLs.
Making sure the mobile site can handle an increased crawl rate.
Making sure the robot.txt directives are the same on the mobile and desktop sites.

Google offers an entire section focused on suggestions for separate URLs.

The “Troubleshooting” section of the best practices document is also worth checking out.

It includes common errors that can either cause your site to not be ready for mobile-first indexing or could lead to a drop in rankings once your site is enabled.

Note that Mueller explained nothing has changed with mobile-first indexing related to sites with separate mobile URLs using rel-canonical. Mueller recommends keeping the annotations the same.

Google will use the mobile URL as canonical even if the rel-canonical points to the desktop URL.

Mueller created a helpful graphic that shows a “before and after” indexing process for desktop and m-dot URLs.

I occasionally get questions about this, so just to be clear: if you have separate mobile URLs (with rel-alternate / rel-canonical links), with mobile first indexing you *don’t* need to change anything. Keep the same annotations. No changes needed. pic.twitter.com/nGPucxPXWn
— 🐝 johnmu.csv (personal) 🐝 (@JohnMu) January 18, 2021

One last note about best practices.

In Google’s mobile-first indexing best practices documentation, it states, “While it’s not required to have a mobile version of your pages to have your content included in Google’s search results, it is very strongly recommended.”

While it might seem obvious to have a mobile version, I have gotten pushback when speaking about mobile-first.

At one conference, an attendee asked during my session if having a mobile version of the site was necessary if no one was coming from a mobile device.

He kept emphasizing “no one.” My answer? Do it anyway.

Not only does Google very highly recommend it, but visitors, especially repeat visitors, might not be using mobile devices because of the poor experience.

We need to focus not just on getting pages ranked in search results, but also on ensuring that the visitor has a good experience once on the page.

Page Experience Update + Mobile-First

The Page Experience update also needs to be part of the conversation.

The Page Experience update was officially released for mobile devices in 2021 and includes measurement signals regarding how visitors perceive their experience of interacting with your web page.

According to Google, this perception goes beyond just the information value provided on the page. Therefore, Google takes into account loading performance, visual stability, and interactivity of the page, which is known as Core Web Vitals.

Page Experience also looks at mobile-friendliness, HTTPS, and intrusive interstitials, which were already a part of the ranking algorithm.

For instance, mobile-friendliness was announced as a ranking factor in 2015, which led to Mobilegeddon (the industry’s name for the update… not Google’s name).

This factor took into account text readability, spacing of tap targets, and unplayable content.

A year later, Google announced that it was strengthening this ranking factor.

Originally, the mobile-friendly update was meant to apply to mobile search results only, but now with the mobile-first index, it applies overall.

Let’s get back to Core Web Vitals.

Core Web Vitals are factors Google considers important in a user’s overall experience on the webpage, including Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Each of these factors contributes to the user experience and is scored as “Good,” “Needs Improvement,” or “Poor.”

Now, let’s see how this relates to mobile-first indexing.

There is a lot of overlap between Core Web Vitals and the mobile-first index because both look at how a page performs on a mobile device.

To tie this together, you can reference one of the mobile-first indexing best practices provided by Google, which is to ensure your mobile site loads fast.

Google offers specific recommendations, including using Google PageSpeed Insights and focusing on the “Speed” section. Note that there are other tools you can use too to test speed, such as GTMetrix and WebPageTest.

Martin Splitt, who works in Google’s Developer Relations, was asked in May 2021 if the Page Experience Update was going to roll out on mobile and desktop pages at the same time.

His response was that it would start with mobile pages first, which it did in August 2021. It would be rolled out on desktop pages in February 2022.

It was also made clear that Google would assess mobile pages separately from desktop pages, meaning there is no aggregate score of mobile and desktop (at least not for now).

You can access both the desktop and mobile Page Experience reports in Google Search Console.

Just as you need to pay attention to the desktop and mobile versions of your site for the mobile-first index, you also need to for the Page Experience update.

Check out Core Web Vitals: A Complete Guide for detailed information about this update and how to implement fixes.

One last note before we move on: When Google scores a page, it will test the speed, stability, and usability of the page version that the user ends up seeing.

Here’s where things get tricky. For Core Web Vitals, if you have an AMP version, Google will use it for page experience scoring (i.e., speed, quality, and usability). The mobile version would not be used.

Yet, the mobile version is what would be crawled for the mobile-first index.

So, to sum it up, the AMP version would be used for Core Web Vitals scoring and the mobile version would be used for mobile-first indexing.

Read Google Mobile-First Indexing and Scoring of Sites with Mobile and AMP Versions for the full explanation from Mueller.

Improve Performance In Google’s Mobile-First Index

Here is a consolidated list of items to check that build on some of the best practices already provided.

1. If You Have Multiple Versions, Make Sure Important Content Is Shown On All

Make sure your important content – including structured data, internal links, images, and so on – is on the mobile version of your website, too.

Google even warns in its mobile-indexing best practices that if you have less content on your mobile page than the desktop page, you will experience some traffic loss when your site is moved to mobile-first indexing,

2. Let Googlebot Access And Render Your Content

Google recommends that you use the same meta robots tags on the mobile site, avoid lazy-loading primary content (Googlebot can’t load content that requires user interaction), and allow Googlebot to crawl your resources.

3. Verify Structured Data

Double-check that your structured data is the same on both the desktop and mobile versions of your website and also ensure the URLs are correct.

4. Improve Mobile Page Speed

Page speed has been a factor to consider for a long time and it is even more important with the mobile-first index and Page Experience update.

Advanced Core Web Vitals: A Technical SEO Guide is packed with how-to advice on identifying and addressing speed-related factors that impact Core Web Vitals and mobile-first indexing.

5. Keep An Eye On Mobile Errors

As with most SEO work, getting a site to perform well in the mobile-first index is not a “one and done” task. You need to be closely monitoring Search Console so that you can identify and fix mobile errors.

Make it a habit to regularly view the “mobile usability” and “Core Web Vitals” reports in Search Console.

Keep Reading: Google’s Changelog On Mobile-First Indexing

The changelog in Google’s mobile-first indexing best practices gives a quick recap of the changes since 2016.

As you can tell, there is a lot to know and keep in mind on mobile-first indexing.

Make sure you are staying on top of best practices and monitoring your website’s performance to succeed in the world of mobile-first indexing.

More Resources:

Featured Image: DisobeyArt/Shutterstock

Related Topics:Googles Index MobileFirst seo Today

Up Next

64.2% Of Sites Use WordPress

Don't Miss

6 Remarketing Campaign Mistakes You Must Avoid

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

SEO

The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Published

16 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Max

The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Generating leads is crucial to boosting your sales – but if your landing pages aren’t effective, you’re going to struggle to turn visitors into customers.

Landing pages play a key role in elevating the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and differentiating, refining, and enhancing the user experience.

In this article, we’ll explore how to choose the right landing page builder for your business before highlighting the nine top landing page builders and what makes them stand out.

Let’s get into it.

Choosing The Right Landing Page Builder For Your Business

With so many options to choose from, how can you decide which landing page builder is right for you?

Here are a few things to consider when making your decision.

Marketing objectives: Start by deciding what you want to achieve with your landing pages. Are you looking to collect email subscribers, drive sales, generate leads, or promote an event? Each platform caters to different use cases, so leading with your goals can help you refine your search.
Ease of use: Different builders have different learning curves. If you’re a novice, you should probably opt for a tool that caters to beginners. If you have more technical experience, like coding knowledge, you might want to look to more advanced builders to get the most power.
Integration needs: Do you want your landing pages to integrate with other software or tools you’re already using?
Mobile optimization: It’s essential that your landing pages cater to mobile users, so make sure your builder considers that with features like responsive design.
Budget constraints: Unfortunately, budget matters. Landing page builders come with various price tags depending on their capabilities and features. Make sure you’re working within the boundaries of what you can afford.

While this is, by no means, an exhaustive list of considerations, it’s a starting point to help you choose a landing page builder that makes sense for your business needs.

Now, let’s look at nine of the best landing page builders to choose from.

1. Carrd

Screenshot from Carrd.com, April 2024

Best for: Simple projects, personal use, and small budgets.

Looking for a great landing page builder that won’t break the bank? Look no further than Carrd.

Carrd is a streamlined landing page builder that focuses on creating single-page websites quickly and easily. It’s designed for simplicity, making it ideal for anyone who wants to quickly create a webpage without needing to build a multi-page site.

Think portfolios, personal profiles, project presentations, and small business showcases.

Carrd’s user-friendly interface and selection of themes allow users to create sleek pages in the blink of an eye without even needing an account – you can just visit the website, pick a theme, and get started. However, you will need to sign up to save or publish your site.

It balances simplicity and functionality to help you craft that pages are clean, focused, and responsive across all devices. If you’re just testing the waters or working with slim budgets, this is the right tool for you.

Pros:

Extremely affordable, with a free tier available.
Intuitive and user-friendly interface.
Responsive design.
Fast and lightweight, making it ideal for quick and simple sites.

Cons:

Limited to single-page websites.
Restrictive layouts/themes, which limit creative freedom.
Lacks advanced features and integrations found in more comprehensive builders.

Pricing:

Carrd’s free basic plan allows you to launch three sites with Carrd branding to .carrd.co domains.
Paid plans range from $9 to $49 per year, and offer additional features like no Carrd branding, custom domains, and Google Analytics support (depending on your membership tier).

2. ConvertKit

1714739165 738 The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Screenshot from ConvertKit.com, April 2024

Best for: Content creators, bloggers, and marketers focused on growing their audience through email.

Billing itself as “the creator marketing platform,” ConvertKit’s landing page builder is targeted at creators, bloggers, and marketers who want to expand their email subscriber base.

If your goal is to create a landing page to help you build an email list, ConvertKit might be the right option for you.

ConvertKit’s landing page builder offers a range of high-quality, customizable templates and integrates with third-party tools to help you get the most out of your site.

It also integrates with the stock photo platform Unsplash to offer access to 100,000+ free images for your landing page.

While ConvertKit’s analytics and customization options might not be as extensive as those of some of its competitors, its ease of use and focused approach make it a standout for email-driven campaigns.

Pros:

No cost for starting (up to 1,000 subscribers).
Access to thousands of free images.
Robust third-party integration capabilities.

Cons:

Limited template customization and flexibility.
A/B testing and analytics features are less advanced.
Priced higher than some basic landing page builders.

Pricing:

Free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers.
The Creator plan starts at $25/month and includes benefits like automation features and app integrations. Pricing scales are based on subscriber count.

3. Unbounce

1714739165 787 The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Screenshot from Unbounce.com, April 2024

Unbounce is a leading landing page builder renowned for its focus on conversion rate optimization (CRO). Its website promises to help you “build high-converting landing pages with ease.”

It offers a suite of advanced tools, such as A/B testing, dynamic text replacement, and the Smart Traffic system, which uses AI to optimize visitor flow to the highest-converting page variant based on user behavior and characteristics.

It also focuses on features that can help you boost your lead gen efforts, such as opt-in email popups and sticky banners.

With 100+ responsive templates, Unbound makes it easy to create landing pages that are both engaging and effective.

Compared to some other options on this list, Unbounce is a particularly robust platform with tons of customization and integrations – and the price point reflects that.

As a premium offering with a steeper learning curve, it might not be the best for beginners – but its AI-powered features and conversion-focused tools make it a formidable tool for achieving your goals.

Pros:

Advanced A/B testing and AI-driven optimization.
Large selection of responsive templates.
Integrated features for enhancing lead capture.

Cons:

Higher price point than some other builders, which might not work for those with limited budgets.
Complex setup and steeper learning curve for new users.
Some customization limitations.

Pricing

The Build plan starts at $74/month and covers unlimited conversions, one root domain, and up to 20,000 monthly unique visitors.
Other paid plans range from $112/month up to $649/month.

4. Leadpages

1714739166 24 The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Screenshot from Leadpages.com, April 2024

Best for: Small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to generate sales.

Need a landing page that will help you generate sales? Consider taking a look at Leadpages.

Its strength lies in its user-friendly, drag-and-drop editor and an extensive collection of templates that streamline the page-building process. Plus, according to the Leadpages website, it’s a platform that converts five times better than the industry average.

Leadages offers CRO tools, real-time analytics, and A/B testing capabilities, enabling users to enhance their page performance effectively.

Its various widgets allow you to add videos, images, forms, and even payment integrations directly onto your landing pages, making it a versatile tool for businesses that want to combine content with sales functionality.

On top of all this, Leadpages now includes an AI Engine for creating headlines and images and an AI writing assistant at some membership tiers, which can help you write better content.

Pros:

Intuitive no-code editor and easy payment integration.
Comprehensive A/B testing and real-time analytics.
Extensive template library with over 250 options.

Cons:

Higher cost compared to some alternatives.
Limited ecommerce features and potential mobile responsiveness issues.
Some users report mobile responsiveness issues.

Pricing:

The standard plan starts at $37/month for one custom domain, unlimited traffic and leads, and 10,000 monthly AI Engine credits.
More advanced features are available in higher-tier plans, which start at $74/month.

5. Landingi

1714739166 311 The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Screenshot from Landingi.com, April 2024

Best for: Businesses seeking a versatile landing page solution with a wide range of features.

If you’re in the market for versatility, Landingi is worth investigating.

Landingi offers a flexible, comprehensive landing page builder with a robust set of features, including an advanced editor, popups, A/B testing, and a substantial library of 300+ templates.

Its unique Smart Sections feature allows you to reuse and easily update specific page elements across multiple designs, saving time and headaches.

Designed to serve businesses of all sizes, Landingi’s simple, drag-and-drop builder can help you create and optimize various types of landing pages – and if you have any HTML and CSS knowledge, it can be a pretty impressive editor.

Landingi is a particularly strong choice for small businesses looking to target different customer segments with unique landing pages. The integration capabilities with numerous apps, including payment gateways like Stripe, make it a great choice for companies looking to sell products.

While its rich feature set can be overwhelming for newcomers, and creating pages might take a bit longer compared to other platforms, the level of customization and control it offers makes Landingi one of the best landing page builders out there.

Pros:

Extensive template library with 300+ customizable options.
Powerful editing capabilities with Smart Sections for efficient design.
Broad integration with various apps, including payment systems.

Cons:

Steeper learning curve for beginners.
Potentially longer time to create landing pages compared to simpler platforms.

Pricing:

The Lite plan starts at $35/month and gives you 10 digital assets, unlimited conversions, 5,000 visits per month, and one custom domain.
Landingi also offers Professional and Unlimited tiers with more advanced features and capabilities.

6. Instapage

1714739166 945 The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Screenshot from Instapage.com, April 2024

Best for: Large businesses, marketing teams, or agencies that require collaboration and advanced optimization features.

If you’re seeking a more high-end landing page platform, Instapage might be the one for you. It offers advanced features tailored for professional marketing teams and agencies with a need to create optimized landing pages at scale.

In addition to a drag-and-drop builder and plenty of high-quality templates, Instapage offers a bevy of features, including advanced cloud-based team collaboration tools, heatmaps for user engagement analysis, robust A/B testing capabilities, AI-generated content creation, and more.

One of its standout features is Instablocks, which allows users to create custom page components that can be easily reused across different projects.

Instapage supports advanced marketing goals with features like AdMap to align ads with page content. Plus, its mobile-friendly design ensures a fast, seamless user experience.

While Instapage offers a premium experience with its comprehensive set of tools and features, its higher price point and complex functionalities may be a barrier for smaller businesses or those new to landing page optimization.

Pros:

Extensive customization with a library of professional templates.
Instablocks for efficient design and asset reuse.
Effective team collaboration features.

Cons:

Premium pricing will be a barrier for many businesses.
Steep learning curve for utilizing advanced features.
Limitations in reporting and visitor tracking for lower-tier plans.

Pricing:

The Build plan starts at $199/month, with a 14-day free trial.
Customers will need to upgrade to a customized Convert plan to access some of the more complex features, such as AdMap, heatmaps, and more.

7. Wix

1714739166 903 The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Screenshot from Wix.com, April 2024

Best for: Individuals and small businesses seeking creative control without advanced coding.

Now for something much more accessible: Wix is renowned for its user-friendly platform, which is ideal for creating attractive landing pages with minimal effort.

Like other options on this list, Wix offers an accessible drag-and-drop editor and a range of existing templates to help users craft aesthetically pleasing and functional landing pages.

Wix’s platform has a reputation for being particularly beginner-friendly, with a low learning curve and a free plan to help new users get started without any upfront investment.

For those focused on ecommerce, Wix provides specific features to build landing pages that showcase products and promotions, supported by over 50 payment solutions and tools like heatmaps to enhance user engagement and conversion rates.

While it offers a free starter plan, accessing more advanced functionalities and removing Wix ads requires upgrading to a paid subscription.

Wix’s balance of user-friendly design tools, ecommerce support, and cost-effective pricing makes it a favorable option for those new to web design or businesses needing straightforward, visually appealing landing pages.

Pros:

User-friendly with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
Free plan available, making it accessible for beginners.
Ecommerce capabilities with extensive payment integration.

Cons:

Advanced features and ad-free experience require a paid plan.
Potential limitations in customization for complex requirements.
Site speed may decrease with more intricate designs.

Pricing:

A free plan is available, but it includes Wix branding and lacks more advanced features like payments.
Paid plans start at $17/month, offering additional features.

8. Elementor

1714739166 573 The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Screenshot from Elementor.com, April 2024

Best for: WordPress users looking for a powerful and intuitive landing page builder.

If you’re a WordPress user, you’ll want to know about Elementor.

It’s a WordPress page builder that has gained popularity for its flexibility, comprehensive customization capabilities, and user-friendly interface.

Elementor allows users to design dynamic and detailed landing pages within WordPress. This feature makes it the perfect choice for WordPress users who want to extend the functionality of their website with sleek landing pages that maintain a consistent look and feel with their existing content.

Its real-time editing features allow for immediate feedback on design changes without any coding.

It also offers dozens of designer-made templates to choose from. You can add custom forms and popups to your landing page, save page components for reuse, and seamlessly integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) tools to create a powerful customer experience.

While Elementor offers a ton in terms of design flexibility and integration, it’s important to note that it’s exclusively for WordPress users and can be resource-intensive – so it might impact site performance, especially on more complex websites.

Pros:

Advanced customization and design flexibility.
Real-time editing and instant feedback.
Seamless WordPress integration.

Cons:

Exclusively for WordPress users.
Potentially impacts site performance due to resource intensity.

Pricing:

Free version with limited functionality.
Paid versions start at $59/year, providing advanced features and support.

9. Taplink

1714739166 136 The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024

Screenshot from Taplink.at, April 2024

Best for: Social media influencers and businesses looking to direct traffic from social platforms to other content or actions.

This one’s a little different than some of the other examples here, but it deserves highlighting.

Taplink is a specialized micro-landing page builder optimized for social media profiles. It’s perfect for businesses and influencers that want to drive traffic from social media to other content or actions. You just use Taplink to create landing pages and share them on your social profiles.

Taplink stands out for its simplicity and mobile optimization, which is crucial when targeting social media audiences.

The focus on quick, effective page creation allows users to engage with their audience without the complexities of traditional website development.

For those aiming to convert social media interest into tangible outcomes – such as lead generation, sales, or content promotion – Taplink is a winner.

While its feature set is more limited than some of the more comprehensive builders featured here, its affordability and user-friendly design make it a great tool for those looking to maximize their social engagement with minimal effort and investment.

Pros:

Simple and quick setup.
Mobile-optimized for social media engagement.
Cost-effective for targeted campaigns.

Cons:

Designed primarily for micro-landing pages, limiting the scope.
Fewer features and customization options than extensive landing page builders.

Pricing:

Taplink offers a free basic plan, with premium features available on paid plans starting from $3/month. The most expensive tier, the Business tier, is $6/month.

There’s A Landing Page Platform To Help You Convert Visitors

Choosing the right landing page builder for your business can significantly impact your marketing success – but the decision will depend on your specific goals and needs.

As we’ve explored, each tool has unique strengths and caters to different aspects of the landing page creation and optimization process.

Whether you’re looking for advanced design capabilities, a user-friendly interface, or specific functionalities like CRO, there’s a platform that can help you not just streamline your landing page design process, but start converting visitors into loyal customers.

More resources:

Featured Image: Griboedov/Shutterstock

SEO

Google’s Search Engine Market Share Drops As Competitors’ Grows

Published

1 day ago

May 2, 2024

Max

Assorted search engine apps including Google, You.com and Bing are seen on an iPhone. Microsoft plans to use ChatGPT in Bing, and You.com has launched an AI chatbot.

According to data from GS Statcounter, Google’s search engine market share has fallen to 86.99%, the lowest point since the firm began tracking search engine share in 2009.

The drop represents a more than 4% decrease from the previous month, marking the largest single-month decline on record.

Screenshot from: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/, May 2024.

U.S. Market Impact

The decline is most significant in Google’s key market, the United States, where its share of searches across all devices fell by nearly 10%, reaching 77.52%.

1714669058 226 Googles Search Engine Market Share Drops As Competitors Grows

Screenshot from: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/, May 2024.

Concurrently, competitors Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search have seen gains. Bing reached a 13% market share in the U.S. and 5.8% globally, its highest since launching in 2009.

Yahoo Search’s worldwide share nearly tripled to 3.06%, a level not seen since July 2015.

1714669058 375 Googles Search Engine Market Share Drops As Competitors Grows

Screenshot from: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/, May 2024.

Search Quality Concerns

Many industry experts have recently expressed concerns about the declining quality of Google’s search results.

A portion of the SEO community believes that the search giant’s results have worsened following the latest update.

These concerns have begun to extend to average internet users, who are increasingly voicing complaints about the state of their search results.

Alternative Perspectives

Web analytics platform SimilarWeb provided additional context on X (formerly Twitter), stating that its data for the US for March 2024 suggests Google’s decline may not be as severe as initially reported.

From our data (Search Engine website category, US, March 2024) it doesn’t look like we’re there yet: pic.twitter.com/RBUJp4ZLeb
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) May 1, 2024

SimilarWeb also highlighted Yahoo’s strong performance, categorizing it as a News and Media platform rather than a direct competitor to Google in the Search Engine category.

Don’t underestimate Yahoo. They’re doing great. On our platform they’re categorized as News and Media, and hence not a direct competitor to Google in the Search Engine category. But they rank #10 worldwide, #6 in the US, and #1 in their category. Much higher than Bing and OpenAI. pic.twitter.com/O4yJu5QEK6
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) May 2, 2024

At the same time, Google is slightly declining 👀 pic.twitter.com/9i7paeU1QG
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) May 2, 2024
Advertisement

Why It Matters

The shifting search engine market trends can impact businesses, marketers, and regular users.

Google has been on top for a long time, shaping how we find things online and how users behave.

However, as its market share drops and other search engines gain popularity, publishers may need to rethink their online strategies and optimize for multiple search platforms besides Google.

Users are becoming vocal about Google’s declining search quality over time. As people start trying alternate search engines, the various platforms must prioritize keeping users satisfied if they want to maintain or grow their market position.

It will be interesting to see how they respond to this boost in market share.

What It Means for SEO Pros

As Google’s competitors gain ground, SEO strategies may need to adapt by accounting for how each search engine’s algorithms and ranking factors work.

This could involve diversifying SEO efforts across multiple platforms and staying up-to-date on best practices for each one.

The increased focus on high-quality search results emphasizes the need to create valuable, user-focused content that meets the needs of the target audience.

SEO pros must prioritize informative, engaging, trustworthy content that meets search engine algorithms and user expectations.

Remain flexible, adaptable, and proactive to navigate these shifts. Keeping a pulse on industry trends, user behaviors, and competing search engine strategies will be key for successful SEO campaigns.

Featured Image: Tada Images/Shutterstock

SEO

How To Drive Pipeline With A Silo-Free Strategy

Published

2 days ago

May 1, 2024

Max

How To Drive Pipeline With A Silo-Free Strategy

When it comes to B2B strategy, a holistic approach is the only approach.

Revenue organizations usually operate with siloed teams, and often expect a one-size-fits-all solution (usually buying clicks with paid media).

However, without cohesive brand, infrastructure, and pipeline generation efforts, they’re pretty much doomed to fail.

It’s just like rowing crew, where each member of the team must synchronize their movements to propel the boat forward – successful B2B marketing requires an integrated strategy.

So if you’re ready to ditch your disjointed marketing efforts and try a holistic approach, we’ve got you covered.

Join us on May 15, for an insightful live session with Digital Reach Agency on how to craft a compelling brand and PMF.

We’ll walk through the critical infrastructure you need, and the reliances and dependences of the core digital marketing disciplines.

Key takeaways from this webinar:

Thinking Beyond Traditional Silos: Learn why traditional marketing silos are no longer viable and how they spell doom for modern revenue organizations.
How To Identify and Fix Silos: Discover actionable strategies for pinpointing and sealing the gaps in your marketing silos.
The Power of Integration: Uncover the secrets to successfully integrating brand strategy, digital infrastructure, and pipeline generation efforts.

Ben Childs, President and Founder of Digital Reach Agency, and Jordan Gibson, Head of Growth at Digital Reach Agency, will show you how to seamlessly integrate various elements of your marketing strategy for optimal results.

Don’t make the common mistake of using traditional marketing silos – sign up now and learn what it takes to transform your B2B go-to-market.

You’ll also get the opportunity to ask Ben and Jordan your most pressing questions, following the presentation.

And if you can’t make it to the live event, register anyway and we’ll send you a recording shortly after the webinar.