
Mobile SEO: 11 Tips To Boost Your Position in Mobile Search
Mobile phones, in the past decade, have become an essential part of everyone’s life. They have made it easier for people to stay connected with the world around them and seek the information they need. That said, with the growing use of these devices to make search queries, it has become pivotal for businesses to step up and make their websites mobile-friendly and accessible. Ensuring a seamless mobile experience can significantly impact a company’s ability to attract and retain customers in today’s digital landscape.
But what is mobile SEO? Why does it matter, and how can you unlock its potential for your online business? Here’s everything you need to know:
What is Mobile SEO?
Mobile SEO, or mobile search engine optimization, refers to practices that optimize a website's content so that users have a pleasant user experience when visiting the website from their mobile device. This is crucial for making the website rank higher on search engines' results pages.
This process helps attract organic traffic, increase brand visibility, and increase sales for the business. Mobile optimization has become important, especially since the number of mobile users is constantly increasing. Without adequate mobile search engine optimization, your website can miss out on massive traffic and, eventually, sales potential.
Mobile SEO is need of the hour as:
- More people are using their mobile devices to make a search.
- Mobile search has the potential to drive instant sales.
- Mobile SEO can help in leveraging voice search.
- Content optimization helps in achieving mobile optimization, a parameter that search engines consider a ranking factor.
Key Differences Between Desktop and Mobile SEO
There’s a significant difference between desktop SEO and mobile SEO, making it essential for businesses to take the right steps and measures to benefit from them.
Here are the key differences between the two:
- The web page displayed on a desktop screen usually has larger content pieces, allowing businesses to display more visual and text content pieces. On the other hand, mobile screens are smaller, and to get the message across, the text and visual content should be kept concise, to the point, and easy to navigate.
- Desktop users usually spend more time on the website as they navigate through different pages and read about what’s being offered and how it benefits them. In contrast, mobile users are usually quick to understand what’s being offered and are looking for specific information that helps them solve a problem.
- Most desktop users are usually looking to research a topic of interest that allows them to scroll through the website, even if it has many content or visual elements. Mobile users don’t want to spend too much time on a website and are looking for instant information. Due to this, reading through large amounts of content might not work for them.
- Desktop SERP can accommodate more content, including multiple columns, ad placements, visual content, and, in some cases, videos. Meanwhile, mobile SERPs are compact, more focused on avoiding clutter, and have information presented in formats that easily fit the screen.
- While both desktop and mobile SEO prioritize user-friendliness, the user experience offered by mobile is easy to navigate and has quicker loading times. On the other hand, desktop website versions are usually more elaborate, allowing easier navigation from one page to another.
Note: Search engines do not differentiate between desktop and mobile websites. The parameter they guage is how compatible the website is with the device it is being viewed from.
Why Is Mobile SEO Important?
Mobile search engine optimization refines the user experience an individual has on the website. Here are the key benefits of mobile SEO that are worth considering:
- Mobile SEO makes the website load quickly, which is an important factor considering the declining attention span of individuals.
- It decreases the bounce rate, a factor that shows people are finding your website worthy and are spending time on it. The decrease in bounce rate also makes it possible for businesses to showcase their unique offerings and values.
- With mobile SEO, it becomes easier to make the website more responsive, making it compatible with a wide range of devices.
- Mobile SEO also optimizes the website for voice search, a growing trend in recent years that allows mobile phone users to use their voice to make a search.
- An optimized mobile website makes it easier for your potential customers to take action and start moving on it right away.
Tips to Boost Your Position in Mobile Search
Here are some tried and tested ways to optimize your website to benefit from mobile SEO:
1 Measure Your Site's Mobile Friendliness
Before getting started with mobile SEO, checking how optimized your current website is on mobile devices will help understand where you stand currently. A website’s configuration plays a vital role in enabling adequate device specific optimization.
According to Webmaster’s Mobile Guide, there are three types of mobile site configurations.
The most common is Responsive Web Design. In this setup, the server always adapts the same code on a single URL, regardless of the type of device, and adjusts the page's rendering for each screen size. Responsive Web Design demands adding a meta viewport tag (shown below) to the head of the document.
The meta viewport tag: <meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0″> The meta viewport tag informs the browser how to display a page on a particular device. Without this tag, mobile browsers adapt the content automatically to fit the screen’s width.
The page without a meta viewport specified is on the left. The same page with a viewport specified is on the right.
Your website can be hosted on two Separate URLs, sending a different code to both desktop and mobile devices. With this technique, all desktop pages have their mobile equivalents.
For example, the desktop version is hosted on www.example.com while the mobile version is served on a subdomain m.example.com or on a completely different mobile domain like ‘example.mobi’. It is very important to set up the two-way annotation correctly, as it helps Google understand the relation between your desktop and mobile website.
There is also another type of configuration known asDynamic Website Design. Sites that use this method render different content to each device but on a single URL. It may be problematic for a search engine to detect when a visitor is using its mobile version; because of this, you need to optimize the varying HTTP for mobile search correctly. This code tells Google which versions of your mobile-optimized content should be displayed.
Four signs that indicate your website is mobile-friendly:
- The text is legible even on small screens without pixelation.
- The pages are super quick to load.
- The website is easy to navigate. Going from one page to another is a seamless process.
- There are no complex features that make it challenging for your target audience to determine how they can use the website.
Common ways to test how mobile-friendly your website is:
- Consider using Google’s speed test tool to get accurate results of how fast (or slow) your website is.
- You can use Google’s Lighthouse tool or developer tools to identify if your website loads quickly or if it takes time.
- Data from Google Search Console can also be used to determine if your website is instantly opening. It is noteworthy however that a bigger set of data will be required to assess this information.
2. Work On Page Speed
Mobile users demand quick and flawless web experiences. They aren’t always patient with the slow loading speed of the website and are on the lookout for webpages that load in a matter of few seconds. Slow loading speed can result in your target audience not staying on the page for long and might even contribute to higher cart abandonment rates.
Here are some tried and tested ways to improve your website’s page loading speed:
- Reduce the number of round-trip requests on your mobile website. The RTR should not exceed 50.
- Limit the number of JavaScript and/or CSS files that are on your website. Consider combining them to optimize your website’s performance.
- Search engines are capable of crawling your website like a human visitor would. Due to this, it has become crucial to include parameters like head tags, text, and visual content on your website.
- Compressing large files is extremely important to prevent overburdening the server and increasing the page’s loading speed.
3. Help Your Users Meet Their Objectives
Search engines prioritize pages that offer solutions without beating around the bush. Analyzing Google Analytics data can help you understand how your visitors interact with your website. The common data that the tool can help with includes:
- Where do your users come from
Percentage of Traffic From Mobile Devices: Audience – Mobile – Overview
- What type of content are they interested in?
- Areas where your customers are losing interest
- How long is the session cycle?
Top Mobile Landing Pages: Behavior – Landing Pages – “Mobile Traffic” [advanced segment]
This approach will give you a clue as to what smartphone and tablet users are searching for on your website. As a result, you can rearrange and tailor your content for a specific audience. Think about simplifying and streamlining users’ mobile journey and cutting unnecessary interactions to ensure they can take action without getting distracted.
Some effective ways to help your audience meet their objectives:
- Keep the website’s UX and UI by refining the navigation, checkout pages, layout of information and visual content, and seamless navigation through drop-down menus.
- For e-commerce websites, consider opting for an interactive product experience by offering advanced features such as virtual demonstrations, video tutorials, and guides. Doing so also helps build brand credibility.
- Work extensively on creating an interlinking strategy. Doing so makes it easier for your website visitors and crawlers to find new pages on the website.
- Place important pieces of information above the fold (the point from where your target customers start scrolling).
- Constantly check and understand the changing needs of your target audience. With this, you will be able to always offer products or services they won’t be refusing.
4. Organize Your Content for Mobile Search
People using their mobile devices when doing a search usually do not want to spend time scanning through the content pieces. Due to this, it is important for websites to be super concise with the information they are offering. Your visitors will only read your content if they find your information useful very quickly.
Less is better, and it appears to be the most important rule for written content in mobile search.
Here’s how to achieve this:
- Consider what you want your visitors to accomplish on a particular page.
- Set a goal for each page and make sure that you provide all the information they need to make a decision and take action.
- This helps you determinewhat information should be included and excluded from your mobile website.
- Limit the amount of text and keep your page structure clear and well-organized.
- Choose a simple layout that smoothly integrates tappable elements and a call-to-action (CTA).
- Make sure that your users can accomplish all actions in both landscape and portrait views. Write short, concise, and scannable paragraphs.
- Get to the point quickly. Replace plain text with bullets and implement compelling titles and subheadings.
- Avoid making unnecessary forms for your users to fill out—they don’t have time when they’re on mobile.
Remember that users tend to move from one device to another. If you want to improve their experience, ensure the core content stays unchanged regardless of device type.
5. Adjust Font Sizes and Types
It is advisable to use standardfonts for your copy and check if your font sizes scale properly. Avoid custom fonts and keep sizes consistent because they may not always display correctly on mobile screens and might take more time to load. In most cases, a good default size is 16px (CSS pixels) and a line height of 1.2em. Also, restrict using different font types since having too many will make your layout look messy.
Checking your website on various devices (Android and iOS) from different viewing angles can give insights into how the changes are working and if there are more adjustments that need to be made to make viewing a pleasing experience. The first thing your audience wants is the information they are looking for, and the right font size and type clears visual clutter, making this possible.
6. Pay Attention To Interactive Elements
Interactive elements on a website significantly enhance the user experience by engaging the users beyond simplifying viewing the screen. These elements are diverse in nature and can be used to impart a variety of experiences to the users. The purpose of these elements is to prevent users from leaving the website and spending more time exploring the pages. Besides, they also make the overall browsing experience more fun and memorable.
Here are some interactive elements that add more life to any website:
- Animate the page elements by linking them to a trigger.
- Create clickable buttons that draw users' attention instantly.
- Avoid creating overly complicated forms. Only ask for necessary information and avoid putting too many interactive elements.
- Include social media sharing buttons as they remind users to share the content pieces if they find it useful.
- Consider using infographics if you have a lot of information to share.
While interactive elements are an important part of ensuring your website offers an impeccable mobile browsing experience, it is still crucial to avoid adding too many elements. No one wants to visit a website that has a lot going on. Not only does it confuse the visitor about where they need to head next, but it also makes the website look spammy. At the same time, it is essential to use white space appropriately so that your visitors find it easy to read through the content without feeling restless or distracted.
7. Simplify Site Navigation
Your website’s navigation should be straightforward and intuitive. Remember that people who view your site are probably interested in what you have to offer, and overly complicated website navigation will disable them from exploring your website.
A complicated and overly intricate website will further make it challenging for your potential visitors to understand and align themselves with the mission and vision of your brand, as they will be engrossed in trying to find what they are looking for instead of pausing and consciously checking details about your business and other non-commercial aspects.
Here are some practical ways to create an easy-to-navigate website:
- All clickable elements should be placed at a clear distance from each other to avoid unwanted actions, known as “fat-finger syndrome.”
- Improve usability by leaving ablank border between the content and the outer borderof the screen. It will also make the layout clear and easy to scan.
- Implement the right type of navigation menu. You can choose between a few traditional navigation solutions. The most basic and simple way includes a navigation bar and a regular drop-down menu. A navigation bar is a horizontal or vertical menu used to accommodate its categories, while a regular drop-down menu, when triggered, shows up as a list on top of the content.
Note: If your website has a dedicated section where users can register, creating a dedicated page or showing a registration area on top of the page can be helpful. It saves time and allows your customers to access their accounts directly.
8. Include Visual Content
Visual content ensures your visitors take a moment’s pause from browsing and pay attention to what your brand has to say.
The exception to the rule “less is better” is when it comes to visual content. Videos, infographics, images, and other visuals are becoming increasingly important in mobile search as they break the monotony of viewing blocks of content, enhancing the user experience on the website.
Replacing long blocks of text with appealing visuals will communicate much better with users on mobile screens. Nonetheless, before you do, make sure that your visualcontentiscorrectlyoptimizedformobile; otherwise, it may have a negative impact on your site speed.
Keep these in mind when implementing visual content:
- Use high-resolution images to provide your users with an enjoyable experience.
- Don’t have auto-zoom for images, which may annoy your readers and interrupt their journey.
- Use YouTube videos because their embed code is responsive.
- Using gallery plugins will allow businesses to create a seamless viewing experience for their visitors.
Adding visual content particularly works wonders for e-commerce websites where businesses want to entice their customers into making a purchase by showing them the product range the brand offers. When a visitor sees what’s on offer, they are more likely to take an interest in the product as they begin to visualize how the product will make a difference in their lives. Visual content helps build an emotional connection as people get to see what they are reading about.
9. Optimize For Voice Search
With virtual assistants like Siri (iOS), Google Assistant (on Android) and Alexa (Amazon’s virtual assistant), optimizing one’s website for voice search has become important. It allows the virtual assistants to pick up your business as a result for the voice inquiry made.
That said, using long-tail keywords and optimizing content in a human tone will be the key to getting your website seen by search engines. It is also crucial to review the content to make sure it directly responds to a query.
Search engines like Google may also choose to rewrite the rich snippet content to suit the search query. By writing high-quality, informative content, you can avoid this instance, and your potential customers will see the content that you want them to see.
Strategies that will help hit the bull’s eye:
- Understand the search intent linked with the keyword. It gives an idea about what your target audience could be looking for and how you can create satisfying content.
- Structured data markup and featured snippets are of paramount importance as search engine algorithms depend on them to understand the context.
- It is crucial that your mobile optimized website is highly responsive, fast loading and east to navigate. No one wants to go on a scavenger hunt trying to find the answers they need (especially when there’s an emergency).
- Consider using more natural language keywords throughout your website to ensure it is easier for voice assistants to catch easy phrases and show your content in results.
Practical ways to optimize your mobile website for voice search:
- Target keywords that have a question in them.
- Giving equal priority to local SEO.
- Create content that answers questions in the most straightforward way to increase chances of getting featured in rich snippets.
- Add schema markup to your content. It is structured data that helps search engines understand your content better, making it easier for your website to show up in SERP.
- Use conversational language in your content, as if you are explaining the topic to a dear friend. As most voice searches are done on the go or when the user is lounging, they are more likely to command the voice assistant in a conversational language, increasing the chances of your website showing up whenever a relevant search is done.
10. Separate URLs for Mobile V/S Desktop
Creating a mobile-friendly URL version of your website is highly encouraged. A separate mobile version will create an additional URL of the website (usually in m.domain.com format). This allows the website to be seen as responsive on different mobile devices, irrespective of their operating system or browser variant. However, it is crucial to do this with care to avoid creating dynamic versions of the website, as they can dampen the overall user experience for your target audience.
Meanwhile, a desktop URL is a website link that has been optimized to be viewed on computer systems. While there is no difference in the way search engine algorithms see and treat these URLs, the mobile-first indexing approach, however, makes it important for website owners to focus on optimizing the mobile experience. Responsive design is highly regarded in the eyes of search engines, and by optimizing your website accordingly, your website can significantly increase its ranking potential.
Conclusion
Building a website is an exciting experience for many businesses. It allows them to create an online presence, increase brand discoverability, and open new pathways to generating sales. But, with the ever-evolving world of search engine algorithms, it can sometimes become overwhelming to stay ahead of the competition.
What can work wonders for your business from day one is implementing mobile SEO on your website to enable on-the-go customers to find answers or go through the customer journey cycle before they make a purchase.
That said, mobile SEO is of paramount importance, considering the weightage search engines give them. Optimizing your website to become mobile-friendly can be achieved by checking existing issues and finding practical ways to fix them. Remember, with the growing popularity of mobile users, search engines are prioritizing websites that offer valuable information without confusing their target audience.