This guide will take you through the basics and essentials of mobile SEO so you can make sure your brand or business is on the right track.First thing’s first:
What is mobile optimization?
It's really important to note that mobile optimization isn't just a mobile-friendly website. A website that is mobile-friendly will shrink the pages so that it can be viewed on mobile devices, while mobile optimization aims to offer visitors a seamless experience that has been specifically tailored to mobile devices. It considers site design, page structures, content, load speeds, and much more, to allow for a better user experience on all mobile devices.There are some notable differences between SEO as it applies to desktop computers compared to SEO on mobile devices. It's important for the consumer to be aware of these, as listed below:
- Mobile has different levels of engagement: those who use mobile are more focused on what’s on the screen directly in front of them, and less interested in scrolling down pages
- Mobile tends to use different search behavior, as not all smartphone and tablet users search via keywords
- Mobile SEO also uses a different ranking algorithm that tends to change search results on a mobile phone due to location
- Mobile looks at a variety of different quality signals to position a website in a search engine
Why should I worry about mobile SEO?
More people than ever use mobile phones to search, meaning if you don't offer a quality user experience, you are going to lose out on a large percentage of customers. Not only that, but Google has been trying to encourage more mobile-friendly websites. This is particularly true with their recent Mobile-First Index, which means the quality of your mobile-friendly design will directly impact your position in search engines.
How do I become more mobile-friendly?
The good news is, Google has provided the following guidelines:1. Those who have responsive sites and dynamic serving websites with equivalent markup and primary content across both mobile and desktop won’t need to make any changes.2. Businesses that only have a verified desktop website in search console need to add and verify a mobile version within the search console.3. Those businesses with different markups and primary content across both desktop and mobile websites need to make changes, including delivering a structured markup for both their mobile and desktop sites and verifying that the mobile version is accessible to Google bots who are crawling.4. If you don't know where to start, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to give you insight into how a visitor will see your website via a mobile device.5. Also, check out Google’s PageSpeed Insights, as this can provide you with actionable information about the performance of a web page for both desktop and mobile devices. Page speeds directly affect user experience, which impacts your ranking position.Use these tips to get your website ready for mobile SEO!Call us on (800) 274 2908 for more information.
