Understanding Mobile SEO: The Basics
Youâre at a dinner party. It's a good one, you know. A little bit noisy, lots of people and some really strong stories around the table - but the host puts your favourite dish smack in front of you. The host has taken time to pair the cheese with wine, and salt the steak just right for your palate.
Suddenly, itâs not enough that this is your comfort food. Sort of. You want it on the right plate with the right fork - especially because there are people watching. Your content works the same way.
You can have SEO-friendly content that Googleâs all over like white on rice, but if itâs not optimised for mobile - whatâs the point. As a business owner whose first point of contact is their website, you need to think about how much of your web traffic comes from mobile users as compared to desktop users. At least 58 percent of web visits come from a handheld device, and people who are usually on their phones have less patience than those working on a desktop computer. So whatâs changed about search engine results for mobile devices.
There was a time when Google ranked websites based on desktop versions, but starting September 2020, mobile-first indexing became the norm. Now more than ever, itâs critical that your website is mobile friendly because this is how Google reads and ranks your pages. I know that sounds daunting - so many more things to think about.
But really, if your website looks good on your phone or tablet and is easy to navigate - Google's job becomes easier too. Youâre more likely to rank better on search results because Google can see that youâre making an effort to provide value to your visitors while also making their experience stress-free.
Importance of Mobile-Friendly Design
Picture this: Itâs 10 pm. Youâre on the train home, winding down after a long day, scrolling through your phone in search of a late-night pizza joint for some cheeky indulgence. But instead of gooey cheese and pepperoni topping, you're being served websites that barely load on your phone, images squished all the way up to the side, letters crammed in like spam mail.
The way I see it, the last thing you want is to be greeted by a business's website thatâs not mobile-friendly and doesnât display the information you need at a glance. If youâre not able to find what you need easily within the first 8 seconds of opening a website, thereâs probably not going to be a second try.
Mobile-friendliness is crucial for effective SEO. Google now prioritises mobile-first indexing, which means your website will rank higher if it is hardly ever optimised for phones and tablets. What exactly does this mean. Your website should automatically adjust to fit smaller screens better and should be easy to navigate without accidentally clicking on five wrong links just to get where you need to be.
It seems like once youâve done this part right - it is whatâs going to help keep bounce rates low and traffic high.
Optimizing Page Speed for Mobile Users
Have you ever clicked on a link while lying in bed with your phone, only to wait an eternity for the page to load. Or worse, give up altogether because the page seemed stuck.
It happens so often itâs almost become a running joke. Slow-loading sites are a surefire way to lose customers and tank your search rankings - as Google has no patience for lagging websites. You might want to look into optimising images for quicker loading times. Compress them without compromising on quality and use responsive images that adjust based on device resolution.
Lazy loading is another tactic that prioritises above-the-fold content, ensuring users arenât kept waiting for something they havenât even gotten to yet. It minimises the time spent staring at a blank screen, which can seriously damage your siteâs bounce rates and performance. Reduce the number of redirects.
Too many redirects can slow down your page speed more than you realise. It seems like one or two is fine but anything beyond that is just unnecessary, especially when weâre talking about mobile ux. Caching is also crucial for reducing server load and improving user experience - so donât forget to leverage browser caching.
Last but not least, donât forget about third-party scripts. As convenient as some plugins may be, they can slow down your site - particularly on mobile devices. All this makes it clear that optimising page speed isnât just a good thing to do - itâs necessary.
In fact, Google officially recognises page speed as one of its search ranking factors now, so there is no excuse not to give this topic its due diligence.
Leveraging Local SEO for Mobile Searches
Ever found yourself rushing to a meeting, fumbling for your phone to find the closest coffee shop that wouldnât burn a hole in your wallet or serve you bitter espresso. A simple, âBest coffee near meâ is all it takes for your mobileâs location-aware search results to spill out some pretty decent options. And letâs face it, none of us have the time to scroll through 10 pages of results on a five-inch screen, do we. Think of Googleâs local 3-pack as your new best friend.
Whenever someone runs a local search for anything - a plumber, an HVAC specialist, a tailor, you name it - the search engine pulls up the top three most relevant business listings based on keywords and proximity to the user. If you want your business - or your clientsâ businesses - to appear in these coveted top three spots, youâll need to up your local SEO game and optimise both Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business) and Bing Places for Business. From keeping information up-to-date and posting new images regularly to responding to negative reviews proactively and using keywords strategically - there are plenty of ways you can improve how your business is perceived online. More or less.
To be fair though, I have my doubts about how much time an HVAC specialist or plumber has every week for that sort of thing. Depending on where youâre based and what industry you work in, local citations might play a more important role than ratings or review responses. For instance, having an accurate address and phone number on websites like Angieâs List and Yellow Pages could make a significant difference if your business falls under certain categories. So remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach with local SEO either.
The Role of Voice Search in Mobile SEO
Picture this - you're out for a run, trying to keep your fitness routine intact. I Think suddenly, you remember that you have to buy groceries for dinner. You could stop in your tracks and frantically type on your phone, but who would do that.
Instead, you whip out your phone and use voice search to find a list of grocery stores around you. Mobile SEO has come a long way in the past decade. More or less.
Since 2011, voice search has significantly improved the way we interact with mobile devices and search engines. As speech recognition technology gets better, a growing number of people are expected to use it every day.
If you want your business to show up at the top of the search results, optimising it for voice search can be quite helpful. When users interact with voice assistants like Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant, they are allegedly more likely to use conversational phrases or ask questions rather than simply type in keywords. This means that businesses need to create content using more natural language and answer common user queries. Incorporating long-tail keywords and question-based queries is also quite important for optimising your website for voice search.
Additionally, ensuring that your Google My Business listing is updated can go a long way as voice assistants often recommend local businesses based on this information. The way I see it, as digital technologies continue to evolve, it seems like voice search is going to stick around for a while. Given that nearly half the population is expected to regularly use voice search by 2022, itâs high time businesses optimise their sites to keep up with evolving customer behaviour and get ahead of the competition.
Monitoring and Analyzing Mobile SEO Performance
I suppose itâs easy to get distracted by all the action happening on your phone. Itâs this tiny little screen that draws you in for hours and before you know it, youâve fallen down a TikTok rabbit hole that leaves you completely off-track from what you were looking for in the first place. If only there was someone monitoring your searches and analysing your behaviour for future reference â oh wait. There is.
Everyone wants to be number one on a Google search result. But how do you get there and, more importantly, stay there. With so many businesses relying on their websites for success, itâs important to keep track of how yours is performing so that you can maintain an edge over competitors.
While most SEO monitoring tools available today are fairly comprehensive, it can still be quite tricky to figure out how well your website is performing on mobile devices because of the way web pages render differently on desktops as compared to smartphones or tablets. While SEO performance analysis can sometimes sometimes feel like a game of âwill they wonât theyâ with search engines, a good mobile-first strategy often helps optimise your website to appear higher up in search results while also driving organic traffic through better user experience. The latest trend in Google analytics is a focus on Core Web Vitals which measures performance metrics such as loading speed, interactivity and visual stability of web pages.
A good dashboard allows marketers to monitor audience behaviours like bounce rate and average time spent by a user on the site â all of which contributes towards improving your websiteâs ranking. A recurring theme I have noticed in most conversations about mobile SEO is the importance of adjusting strategies based on insights from data analytics and tracking reports. By constantly evaluating key metrics, businesses can identify trends and patterns that help them understand what works and what doesnât â making it easier to stay ahead in a constantly evolving digital landscape.