Mobile SEO is Essential to the Success of Your Business

What do you use your mobile phones for? Making phone calls, texting, using social media, e-mail, online shopping, banking, SEO – SEO? Yes, you heard it right! Our mobile devices are becoming more and more intelligent and improving all the time. With a rapid increase in mobile internet usage, mobile SEO has moved from ‘the need of someday’ to a ‘priority.’ According to a recent research report, a fifth of 16-24 year olds spend a whopping seven hours every day online. And, that’s a whole two days every week! In this blog, our certified SEO consultant in Atlanta details mobile SEO and why it’s crucial for businesses.

The Importance of Mobile SEO

Over the past few years, the SEO landscape has gone through massive changes. Major search engines such as Google have become smarter, and quality SEO is no longer limited to desktops alone. With the increase in global smartphone usage, there is a steady increase in the number of people searching on a mobile device.

Did you know major popular brands are seeing more than 30% of their organic search traffic being generated from mobile devices? This number is only expected to grow with the increased usage of smartphones. A recent research report indicates that 93% of smartphone users choose to research a product through a search engine before purchasing it. So, if you are not optimizing your website for mobile now, you are getting out of the game and losing organic mobile search traffic.

Google’s Mobile-First Indexing

Recently, Google announced its switch to mobile-first indexing and rewarding the websites that are optimized for mobile usage. This announcement is made based on the changed user behavior, increased access to Google via mobile devices, and more. As a result, the top marketing agencies in Atlanta believe only those businesses that have optimized their businesses for mobile can compete and achieve top ranks in search results.

Design and Build Websites with Mobile-first Indexing in Mind                             

The Statista report says 50% of the total searches are from mobile phones, and people searched using their mobile devices 56% of the time. As Google has shifted to looking at mobile sites for content to get them rank for both mobile and desktop searches, it’s crucial to design and build pages with mobile-first indexing in mind.

Tips to Optimize Your Website for Mobile SEO

From site design to user experience, everything can affect mobile SEO. Our SEO consultant in Atlanta from Strategic Marketing Consultants lists the factors to consider for optimizing your website for mobile.

Make Your Site Mobile SEO Responsive

Creating a responsive design is one of the first rules of optimizing your website for mobile. With the availability of numerous screen sizes, it’s imperative to create a responsive design that will adapt to any screen size. Implementing responsive design makes it easy for your users to browse your site, help them scroll through your pages, and view your site correctly.

Touchscreen Navigation

While optimizing your website for mobile, keep touchscreen navigation in your mind. You must be very careful when considering spaces around links and choosing the size of clickable text or buttons. Small icons or crowded items result in unintended clicks when navigation is done using a thumb or index finger. It could lead to poor user experience, which can negatively impact mobile SEO.

User Experience

Do you want to be successful with mobile SEO? Then focus on improving your user experience. While responsive design is a great start for creating a better mobile search experience, there are a few other factors to consider to ensure great experience for users.

Mobile SEO Thumb-friendly design: Most users browse with their thumb on mobile devices, and you must make it easier for your audience to scroll and click on elements of your page.

Easy-to-find CTA: Call to action is crucial to increase conversions. So, make sure that the call to actions used in your mobile-friendly website must be easy-to-find. Whether the call to action is a phone number or a phrase, it must stand out and be big enough for the users to click on.  

Use Legible Fonts: Adjust your font size to be easily legible on a mobile device to make it comfortable for users who browse on small screens.

The Best Practices for Mobile SEO

Page Speed

Did you know 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load? Page speed is a critical factor for mobile SEO, and it must be optimized properly to improve your page rank. Usually, people search for information on-the-go, and they want to get access to information immediately. Simplify codes, minimize the number of redirects, and optimize images to improve page speed. If you don’t have experience modifying the page speed features, hire an SEO consultant in Atlanta to make changes and improve your site’s loading time.

Meta Titles and Descriptions Optimization

When you optimize your website for mobile SEO, always remember that you are working with less screen space. So, instead of creating regular meta titles and descriptions with 70 and 160 characters, respectively, create short, concise meta data without compromising the quality of the information.

Make Way for Googlebot

Google uses Googlebot to scan websites and determine the content of the page to get rank it in the top of the search result. So ensure that you aren’t blocking it via robot.txt file and allow Googlebot to crawl your site and fetch information.  

Use Structured Data

The use of Schema.org and structured data allows the search engine to better match queries and serve quick answers to the users. A search result with rich snippets on your mobile screen stands out from the desktop version.

Use Pop-ups Wisely

Pop-ups are a great way to capture the attention of your audience and potential customers. Sometimes, using these pop-ups on mobile devices results in more trouble. A pop-up that takes up the entire screen can leave users irritated and may leave your site. Are you planning to use pop-ups? You must use them sparingly, so it doesn’t cover important information featured on your website.

Local Mobile SEO Optimization

More and more mobile users are searching for local businesses. Recent data indicate mobile searches using the phrase “near me” occurred three times more in recent years. With an increase in the searches for phrases with ‘near me,’ ‘open now,’ and more, it’s high time for you to modify your local strategy. However, optimizing your mobile search with local keywords helps you appear more in the local search results.

Use a Navigation Bar

Adding a navigation bar to your mobile website makes it easier for the users to search and access information quickly. Hence, creating mobile-friendly navigation is a good indication that you are creating a positive environment for your users to navigate and stay on your website.

Create a Different Mobile URL

When businesses optimize their website for mobile SEO, they intend to create a separate mobile URL. This provides a custom experience for users who do searches through mobile devices.

In addition to the above practices, there are several other tactics that will help you in mobile optimization. If you are new to this race, get help from a professional right away!

Mobile SEO Conclusion

Do you want to make your website fit for Google’s mobile-first indexing? Then, let your certified SEO consultant in Atlanta help you create a robust mobile SEO plan and reach more leads.  Get in touch with our professional at Strategic Marketing Consultants now to get help on mobile SEO optimization.