Mobile SEO: 7 Things to Keep in Mind

A staggering 60% of all Google searches are performed on mobile devices. If you don’t want to miss out on this traffic, you need to make sure your website caters to their needs.

This article is dedicated to providing a comprehensive insight into the nuances of mobile SEO in order to explain why it should be given the highest priority. In addition, we will delve into some highly effective mobile SEO practices that you can implement immediately to improve your website’s mobile-friendliness.

What is Mobile SEO? Why is it important?

To avoid alienating groups of mobile visitors, websites need to accommodate different screen sizes and load times. If your website fails to offer a mobile-responsive version, you risk a significant drop in revenue and search engine rankings.

This is where mobile SEO comes in. By examining factors such as site design, structure, or page speed, you can ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and optimized for mobile searches. If you want to succeed as a business, mobile SEO is a top priority.

This process includes providing seamless navigation for mobile visitors, ensuring fast loading times on mobile devices, and designing each function with the mobile user in mind. Below we also describe other useful practices, such as using Schema.org structured data and Google Search Console to monitor and improve mobile friendliness.

How to check if your SEO is right for mobile?

There are a number of steps you can take to ensure that your website works seamlessly on mobile devices. One of these is to use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, a tool designed specifically to verify your website’s mobile compatibility. The test lets you take a close look at your site and identify all issues that may prevent users from accessing it on their phones and tablets. The resulting feedback can be then used to make necessary changes.

Modifications can take the form of a separate, mobile-friendly version of your website, or as an adaptive site that works flawlessly on any device. By optimizing your website’s mobile functionality, you can improve user experience and streamline mobile access, directly influencing your search engine rankings and your incoming traffic’s volume.

Best practices in Mobile SEO

There are several best practices to follow when optimizing your website for mobile. These include:

#1 Take care of your page speed

In the world of mobile SEO, page speed is one of the most important factors to consider. Because of hardware and connectivity limitations, page speed on mobile devices is even more important than it is on desktop. Mobile users have come to expect a lightning-fast experience, and if your site doesn’t meet that expectation, they’re likely to look for alternatives.

That’s why it’s highly important to look for ways to optimize your site’s load time using Google’s PageSpeed Insights. To improve your site’s speed, try image size optimization, code minification, browser caching, and reducing the number of redirects.

#2 Don’t block your CSS, JavaScript, and images

Making sure that search engine crawlers and users can access your site is essential for effective mobile SEO optimization. In the past, programmers had to disable some or all of CSS, JavaScript, and images because not all mobile devices could support them. This is no longer the case.

If you have not opted for preparing a separate version of your website designed specifically for mobile, it is crucial to ensure that all devices are accounted for within one HTML code. CSS, JavaScript, and images on your site cannot be blocked. If you decide to use any of these elements, make sure they are responsive on all devices your visitors might be using. This will significantly help your SEO.

#3 Design for mobile from the start

Because users are constantly scrolling and accessing website content on a variety of mobile devices, older traditional concepts of “above the fold” are becoming irrelevant. Redesigning a website to be mobile friendly is essential to ensure an optimal user experience.

#4 Avoid Flash and other outdated technologies

Using plugins such as Flash can cause compatibility issues with mobile devices, which in turn can result in missing out on potential visitors. Instead of incorporating plugins that may not load on your smartphone, it’s better to stick to HTML5 and JavaScript frameworks.

#5 Don’t use pop-ups

Pop-ups can create a frustrating experience for mobile users, resulting in a higher bounce rate as users struggle to close them. It’s best to avoid pop-ups altogether on mobile devices to ensure a smooth and enjoyable browsing experience.

#6 Always design for a fat finger

When optimizing a mobile website, it is critical for web developers to consider how much mobile traffic the site will receive and ensure that it  is responsive on any mobile device, even by prioritizing mobile user experience over the desktop one.

Accidentally pressing the wrong button while using touchscreen navigation can be highly annoying. To avoid this, make sure your site’s buttons and links are easy to click, even with an awkward and imprecise touch of a finger. To minimize the number of potential accidental clicks, button size and spacing must be carefully considered.

#7 Use structured data to stand out

Mobile SERPs present search results in the form of cards that take advantage of Schema.org structured data, providing review ratings, images, and event dates. This leads to a significant improvement in organic click-through rates.

Although cards can also appear on desktop, they are much more likely to catch users’ attention on mobile devices, due to their higher prominence.

Therefore, to increase your mobile organic traffic from Google, it would be wise to implement structured data on your website. By providing structured data using Schema, search engines will know exactly what users can find on your page — and what it all means.

Mobile SEO design

You have a few options when it comes to designing your site for mobile users.

You could either implement a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes, use dynamic serving to display different content depending on the device, or decide to build a separate mobile version of the site from the ground up.

Google generally recommends the responsive design approach, but when used correctly, all three methods can be equally effective.

It’s important to note, however, that each option has a different level of complexity and sophistication. For example, responsive design can provide a more seamless user experience but at the same time may require a higher level of technical expertise. Dynamic serving, on the other hand, can provide more flexibility for customization while inadvertently causing inconsistent user experiences.

Regardless of your choice, it’s important to always keep your users’ experience in mind. This means making sure that your site is easily accessible, loads quickly, and is easy to navigate on all mobile devices.

#1 Responsive Web Design

Responsive web design is a strategy that provides a consistent experience for viewers regardless of their electronic device or screen size. By using grid layouts created with CSS3 media queries, responsive website designs adapt to the user’s screen size and orientation. They’re known to improve user experience and viewer satisfaction and are basically fool-proof.

Because seamless user experience is what search engines ultimately look for when ranking websites, your chances of online success can be greatly increased by implementing responsive design, bringing in more visitors and increasing conversion rates. Responsive web design is definitely something to at least consider when designing a website.

#2 Dynamic Serving

Dynamic serving is a powerful technique of optimizing your site for mobile and thus boosting your search engine rankings. After identifying the user’s device, it brings forth a version of your site designed to provide the best possible experience.

However, dynamic serving requires preparing multiple versions of your site in advance, all optimized for a specific device. This is not the easiest option of ensuring that your site is mobile-friendly and achieving high search engine rankings.

#3 Separate Mobile URL

Another effective strategy of mobile optimization is to create a separate mobile version of your website with a unique URL. This approach involves designing streamlined, user-friendly pages that load quickly and provide an uninterrupted user experience designed specifically for mobile.

Developing a dedicated mobile version of your website is an idea worth considering, as potential benefits can give you a competitive edge. You can significantly increase the level of your site’s technical sophistication and assure its best overall performance and highest user satisfaction while also allowing for unusual design choices. It is, however, a complicated process that requires careful attention to detail.

Summary

In short, optimizing your website for mobile SEO requires a variety of factors, including but not limited to ensuring that your website is mobile friendly, easy to navigate, and that it always provides a positive user experience.

Tracking your mobile SEO performance through the use of Google Analytics is crucial, as it allows you to measure the success of your mobile SEO efforts and make further data-driven decisions to further optimize your site for mobile devices.

Beyond the technical aspects, it’s important to remember that the quality of your content is also important for mobile, as streamlined, easy-to-read, and properly spaced text makes for a more engaging reading experience.

Nowadays mobile SEO can be the difference between success and failure in the digital landscape. By making sure to always stay on top of the latest mobile SEO trends, you can maximize your online performance.

Need help with your mobile SEO? We are ready to audit your website and advise you on the best possible solutions.

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