The art of optimizing your website for mobile devices is known as mobile SEO. It prioritizes ensuring that the website looks great on all mobile devices, from the user interface to the overall look.
It’s also becoming more relevant every day in a world where virtually everyone has a smartphone in their pocket.
In reality, mobile devices accounted for 61% of all Google searches in 2020.
That means Mobile SEO should not only be a part of your SEO plan but should also be one of your top priorities.
- What is Mobile SEO?
- Why is Mobile SEO Important?
- What is Mobile-First Indexing?
- What Makes a Site Mobile-Friendly?
- How to Optimize Your Website for Mobile SEO
What is Mobile SEO?
Search engine optimization is the method of getting your website to rank as high as possible in search engines like Google for related content (SEO).
Similar best practices apply to mobile SEO, but the focus is on optimizing the website for visitors who access it from a mobile device. This includes ensuring that the site runs seamlessly on all smartphones and tablets, is mobile-friendly, and looks fantastic on all screens.
This means that every user has a positive experience on your website, regardless of which mobile device they use to access it.
It also makes you more available to smartphone users because, depending on how well you have installed your website, it will appear in the search results.
Also Read: Best SEO Practices For Your Website
Why is Mobile SEO Important?
SEO, like the internet, is always changing, which means we must be flexible in our approach. If SEO priorities shift, our website’s priorities should shift as well.
We already know that over half of all Google searches are conducted on a mobile device, and SEO is all about putting the content in front of as many people as possible.
As fewer and fewer people use computers to access the internet, it’s understandable that SEO is shifting to a mobile-first approach.
Despite the fact that smartphone use continues to expand, a large number of websites have yet to customize their user interface for mobile devices.
It could cost you a lot of money if you don’t have a mobile-friendly website.
According to Socialmediatoday.com, local searches account for 46% of all Google searches, with 60% of those searches being conducted on a smartphone.
These are also useful smartphone queries.
When using a mobile device to check for local businesses, 88 percent of customers call or visit the business within 24 hours.
These figures persuaded Google that it was time to move to mobile-first indexing.
Also Read: What is AMP and how can it affect your SEO campaign
What is Mobile-First Indexing?
Google and other search engines use the mobile version of the content for indexing and rating web pages, which is known as mobile-first indexing.
It was first revealed in 2018 when Google announced that it had started migrating websites that adhered to its mobile-first guidelines.
Prior to the announcement, Google had hinted that it was transitioning to mobile-first indexing (as early as 2015), but the announcement was the company’s first public mention of the change.
Until then, Google’s systems crawled, indexed, and ranked pages using desktop versions of the content. When the desktop and mobile versions were vastly different, this caused some problems for mobile searchers.
As a result, Google started indexing and rating mobile versions of pages to make it easier for mobile users to find what they’re searching for.
While the 2018 migrations were limited to sites that were mobile-ready, Google revealed in 2020 that the mobile-first indexing strategy will be applied to the entire network.
Web administrators will be informed via Google Search Console once their sites had been migrated.
Hopefully, not much has changed, but site administrators may note a difference due to the Smartphone Googlebot’s dramatically increased crawl rate. Additionally, Google started showing the web edition of pages in Search results and Google cached pages after they were moved over.
Also Read: 7 Basic Tips for On-Page SEO
What Makes a Site Mobile-Friendly?
It’s critical to understand what makes a website mobile-friendly in a mobile-first world, particularly now that Google has completely committed to mobile-first indexing.
It can be difficult to use, view, or even navigate your site if it is not mobile-friendly. So, what exactly qualifies a website as mobile-friendly?
The following requirements must be met by a mobile-friendly website:
Is sensitive to the size of the screen, allowing users to see complete sentences without having to scroll horizontally.
Avoids the use of applications not commonly used on cell phones. Flash is an example of such an application.
Places links are spaced far enough apart so that users can tap them without having to zoom in on the content.
Uses easy-to-read text that can be read without having to zoom in on the phone.
Also Read: How overdoing SEO can kill your website?
How to Optimize Your Website for Mobile SEO
We’ll go through some of the best ways to optimize your website for mobile SEO now that you know what mobile-first indexing is and how mobile SEO will affect your placement in search engine result pages (SERPs).
Before you start working on improving your site’s mobile SEO, you can first determine how mobile-friendly it is. Fortunately, Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool makes this easy.
Regardless of whether your site passes or fails the mobile-friendly exam, the following strategies will help your site rank higher on mobile devices.
Create Consistent Content
Other strategies will be discussed, but the best mobile SEO strategy is to use the same content on mobile and desktop versions of websites.
Google wants the content to be the same as everybody else’s. You won’t have to think about what content is indexed or ranked once it is.
Keep Site Design and User Experience Mobile-Friendly
If you want to improve your mobile SEO, make sure your site is mobile-friendly and offers a pleasant user experience.
There are a few basic rules to follow when designing a website to ensure that you keep mobile in mind:
Don’t use Flash– Since Flash is not supported by all smartphones and computers, some customers will be unable to view your site if you use it. Use HTML5 instead if you want to make special effects.
Make navigation easy– Users don’t want to spend all day scrolling for details or attempting to return to the homepage. Make use of menus and keep them short and sweet to make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for, and make sure that clicking your logo returns them to the homepage.
No pop-ups– On a mobile device, pop-ups and ads can be distracting and challenging to manage. It’s possible that this will result in a high bounce rate. It’s better if you just don’t use them at all.
Design for bigger fingers– If your website buttons are too big, too small, or in the way of a finger trying to scroll a page on a touch screen, you might easily end up with unintentional clicks. When designing your web, consider users who have big fingers.
Make site search visible– Since the majority of users who are searching for information on a website would use search, the search bar should be easily accessible. Keep your search bar open and avoid hiding it behind a menu.
Double-check font size– The displays on certain handheld devices are smaller than those on others. Check the fonts and font sizes on all mobile devices to ensure they look fine.
Use clear CTAs– A call-to-action (CTA) indicates to your users what they should do next. When creating CTAs for mobile sites, make sure they stand out by making them easy to locate and large enough to click.
Following these design guidelines will ensure that your website looks great on any device that users use to access it.
Using responsive web design to design your pages is an easy way to follow these guidelines.
On a desktop or a mobile device, pages with a responsive design use the same code and URL. The only thing that should be changed is the display to accommodate the device’s screen size.
Improve Load Times
Serving a slow site is a surefire way to lose visitors.
Mobile users frequently seek information on the go, and they expect it to be delivered quickly. If your website takes too long to load, visitors are unlikely to stick around and wait for it to finish.
Focus on improving your site’s load speed if you want to keep those users. You can use the free Google PageSpeed Insights tool to check the speed of your site and see where it can be improved.
Also Read: Six Essential Link Building Strategies for Local SEO
Optimize Your Local SEO
Given that local searches account for nearly half of all Google searches, getting the most out of your mobile SEO also entails optimizing your local SEO.
Local SEO focuses on optimizing your website’s online presence to attract more traffic from relevant local search engine queries, similar to how mobile SEO focuses on optimizing your website for mobile devices.
Local SEO best practices are an excellent way to effectively promote your business in the communities you serve.
It’s more important than ever to make it simple for customers to find you when conducting relevant local searches.
In the past year, 93 percent of customers used the internet to locate a local company, according to a new Bright Local survey. Furthermore, 34% of the same people conducted regular searches.
When it comes to getting the most out of your mobile SEO, you can also spend time improving your local SEO.
Also Read: Why Your Small Business Needs SEO?
Don’t Forget Titles and Meta Descriptions
Your web page will take up less screen space on a mobile device. Not only should content be brief and succinct, but so should titles and meta descriptions.
Keep URLs, names, and meta explanations brief and to the point to offer yourself the best chance of turning up in the SERPs.
Create a Mobile URL
Site administrators can also build a new site for mobile users with separate URLs. This allows you to develop custom content specifically for mobile devices.
To prevent URL confusion, most parallel mobile sites employ an “m” subdomain.
To avoid duplicate content issues when using different mobile URLs, make the required redirects and use canonical tags.
For online business development, mobile SEO is a must-have tool. You can prioritize mobile optimization if you want to get the most out of your website’s SEO.
Making mobile SEO a key component of your SEO strategy is a successful way to reach consumers in your target markets and promote your company to the people who matter most.
