Google has announced the results of a study on the top 10 mobile-friendly travel companies, with Booking.com coming out as the best performer.
The top 10 mobile sites from travel brands in the UK are as follows:
1. Booking.com
2. KAYAK
3. eDreams
4. lastminute.com
5. Trainline
6. Thomas Cook
7. easyJet
8. Jet2holidays
9. Premier Inn
10. TripAdvisor
Google looked at 465 UK brands across different sectors. Its research shows travel brands perform well compared to the retail sector, but are generally not as mobile-friendly as companies in the finance sector.
Google says travel brands need to invest more in mobile technology, given that 92% of people in the UK use a mobile device, meaning people expect to content to load instantly and be easy to explore.
Research shows that 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site loads in more than three seconds.
Google added: "Unfortunately, many businesses are limited by slow, poorly designed mobile websites.
"Mobile sites have not historically not been prioritised by businesses, but it is critical to success in today’s mobile world.
"Simply put: better mobile sites means more revenue. Our analysis suggests that an average site* could potentially see an increase of $255,000 in annual revenue by improving their mobile load time from six seconds to three.
"At Google, we’re committed to helping to improve the mobile web because businesses’ future truly does depend on it.
"The mobile web has to work for our consumers to keep using it. If a site loads too slow or the functionality isn’t there, consumers have other options."
To help travel companies, Google is launching a Speed Scorecard so businesses can measure how their mobile site speed ranks against top brands.
Google is also launching an Impact Calculator so companies can work out how much more revenue would be available to them if they improved mobile site speed.
The research and the new tools are being launched today at Mobile World Congress.
Ranking methodology is based on a combination of three metrics, as Google says no single metric perfectly captures a mobile site’s speed.
Google says: "We do not reveal our ranking algorithm and encourage people who want to improve how their company ranks against a competitor to focus on holistically improving site speed, rather than focusing on a few single metrics.
*Assuming 150,000 monthly site visitors, initial conversion rate of 2.5%, and average order value of $75 USD
