Did you know that more than 40% of transactions take place on mobile? If you want mobile users to interact with your website and become loyal customers, you need to invest in mobile search engine optimization (SEO). Mobile SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank better in search results and keep potential customers on your page from mobile devices.
On this page, we’ll talk about mobile SEO, why it’s crucial, and nine ways to help you optimize your mobile-optimized SEO. To learn more about mobile SEO, call us today at (408) 982-5851 to speak with a strategist about our SEO plans.
What is Mobile SEO?
Mobile SEO is the process of optimizing your website to ensure that your website looks great and functions properly on mobile devices. When you do mobile SEO, you give users a positive impression of the site because it looks great on any device regardless of screen size.
The use of mobile devices has skyrocketed in recent years. Seventy-six percent of consumers shop on mobile devices, and that number is expected to grow as smart devices become more affordable.
Many companies don’t realize the importance of a mobile-optimized website, but not having a mobile-optimized website hurts both your SEO and your audience’s perception of your business. In fact, 52% of users are less likely to re-engage with your company because of a poor mobile experience.
If you want to avoid a bad mobile experience, you need to optimize your website to be mobile-optimized. We will give you more tips on how to do this later.
Why is mobile SEO important?
We’ve already mentioned why mobile SEO is valuable for your business, but let’s take a look at some statistics that show why mobile SEO is important:
People spend 70% of their time online on mobile devices
When users browse online, they use portable devices 70% of the time. If users spend most of their time using mobile devices to browse the web, you need to ensure that they have a positive impression of your website. If you don’t adapt, you risk losing a lot of potential customers to your business due to a poor mobile experience.
74% of users are more likely to return to a mobile-optimized website
It only makes sense that if users have a positive mobile experience on your site, they are more likely to return to your site again. Returning to your website can have a significant impact on whether visitors become leads for your business.
Mobile-friendly websites improve the opinion of more than 60% of users
A big part of mobile SEO is customizing your website to provide the best possible experience for your audience. If you don’t have a mobile-optimized website, you risk people having a negative perception of your business and bouncing off your site, hurting your rankings. By having a mobile-optimized website, you improve the opinion of over 60% of users who find your business.
67% of users are more likely to buy from a company that is mobile-friendly
Your mobile friendliness affects your conversion rate. If your website works well on smartphones, your audience is more likely to buy products from your company. A mobile optimized website will help you get more conversions for your business.
Google prioritizes mobile when crawling and indexing websites
As more and more people use their phones to search the web, Google has moved to a “mobile-first index”. This means that Google crawlers will read your mobile site first. Having a website that isn’t mobile-friendly will hurt your position in search results, leading to less traffic, fewer leads, and less revenue for your business.
How to check if your website is optimized for mobile
Before making drastic changes to improve your mobile SEO, check if your site is truly mobile-friendly.
The best part is that you don’t have to load every page on your mobile device to read how mobile friendly your website is.
An easy way to test for mobile friendliness is to use Google’s Mobile Site Tester.
You can either search for a mobile usability test on Google or go directly to the website.
All you have to do is enter the URL of the page you want to check and click “Test URL”.
If you use Google Search Console, site-wide testing is even easier with the Mobile Usability Report.
This will test your site for mobile-friendliness and categorize URLs based on issues.
Once your mobile-optimized analysis is complete, you’ll have a better idea of the work you need to do for your mobile SEO strategy.
9 best practices for creating an effective mobile SEO strategy
Now that you know why mobile SEO is so important, it’s time to start tailoring your plan to your mobile users. Let’s take a look at nine best practices for improving your mobile SEO strategy.
1. Improve your site’s load time
Your website’s load time is an integral part of the mobile experience. When users are looking for information on the go, they want to be able to access it quickly. If your website doesn’t load fast enough for your audience, they will bounce off your page.
If you want to retain leads on your mobile site, you need to improve your site’s load time. Google PageSpeed Insights will give you information about your website’s load time.
Through this tool, you can see where your website is doing well and where it needs to be improved. Google will provide you with ways to improve your site’s load time for mobile users.
If you don’t have coding experience or don’t have time to adapt your website to changes, you can invest in page speed services from a digital marketing company. Page speed services allow you to rely on experts to help you improve your page load time, giving you the freedom to focus on running your business.
2. Integrate responsive design
Responsive design is a key part of creating a mobile-friendly website. When you use responsive design, you ensure that your website adapts to whatever device the user is using. Whether it’s a smartphone or tablet, your audience will have the best mobile experience for their device.
Integrating responsive design makes it easier for your audience to navigate your website. They can easily browse your site and display your website properly.
For example, imagine that you are trying to access the desktop version of your website on a mobile device. Everything would be cluttered and unreadable, resulting in constant zooming in and out to read the information on your site.
Without a responsive design, you will drive more potential customers away from your business. If they can’t easily access and read your information, they probably won’t stay on your site.
3. Focus on user experience
This next tip goes hand in hand with responsive design. If you want to be successful with mobile optimization, you need to focus on the user experience.
Responsive design is part of a positive user experience. When prospects can easily access and browse your site on mobile devices, it provides a positive experience for them.
There is more to your website than just integrating responsive design. While responsive design is an excellent stepping stone to creating a better mobile experience, you need to add more elements to your plan to ensure it boasts a great user experience.
Thumb friendly design.
When designing your mobile site, you need to make it easy for your audience to navigate and click on the elements on your page. To do so, you’ll want to create a “thumb-friendly” design, since mobile users primarily navigate with their thumbs.
Easy to find calls to action (CTA)
Call-to-action (CTA) buttons help your audience take the next step toward conversion. When creating a mobile-optimized website, make sure your CTAs stand out on the page and are easy to find. Your audience should immediately see a call to action on your page, whether it’s a phone number or a phrase that directs users to the next page. Your call to action should also be large enough for users to click on easily.
Make sure the font is readable on smaller devices
Since users browse your website on devices with smaller screens, you need to set the fonts to be readable on those devices. Whether you choose a bolder font or highlight the font size, you should adjust the font to make it easy to read on a mobile device.
4. Watch out for pop-ups
Pop-ups are an effective way to draw your audience’s attention to a specific event. Whether it’s signing up for emails or downloading free content, many companies use pop-ups to draw a user’s attention to the action you want them to take.
Specific actions can trigger a pop-up window to appear on the screen. This can be when someone first enters the page, when they scroll to a specific part of the page, or even when they move the mouse and go back to the search results. Pop-ups effectively help grab your audience’s attention and make them look at the important information you want to share.
However, these pop-ups can be a problem on mobile devices. If your popup takes up the entire screen on mobile, it will frustrate users. They won’t see the information they came to your site for and may not understand how to get rid of the popup. This could cause users to leave your site.
If you’re going to use pop-ups on your site, be careful how you use them. You don’t want to use too many popups on mobile because it can drive people away. Use them sparingly and on the part of the page where the popup matters the most and won’t obscure important information.
You should also make sure your popup displays an easy way to get rid of them, such as a prominent “x” at the top.
If you want to be effective with mobile SEO, be careful when using pop-ups on your page.
5. Optimize for local
Local SEO is an essential part of mobile SEO. Mobile searches using the phrase “near me” have tripled over the past few years, meaning more users are searching for local businesses.
People often search using phrases like “near me,” “open now,” and “where can I buy” to find local businesses near them. Since so many people are searching using local phrases on mobile, you need to adapt your strategy to reach these people.
You can adapt to local searches by using local keywords. A keyword like “florists in Harrisburg, PA” is an excellent example of a local keyword. If someone is looking for a local florist, they will likely search for “florists in [city]” to find one.
Using local keywords will help you appear in more local search results. It’s a great strategy to help you stand out with your mobile SEO strategy.
6. Implement a clean, easy-to-use navigation bar
Your navigation plays a vital role in how users find and access information. If your navigation is too difficult to use, users will get frustrated and leave your site. To ensure you’re creating a positive experience for your audience, create mobile-optimized navigation.
The best way to create a mobile-friendly navigation is to use a hamburger menu. The hamburger menu will appear at the top of the page with three lines. When users click on this button, they will see a drop-down menu with all the different pages they can visit.
The hamburger menu makes it easy for you to organize the navigation for your audience. It keeps your website clean and easy for your audience to use to find information.
7. Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions
An essential part of mobile SEO is your title tags and meta descriptions. These two elements determine whether someone clicks on your listing in search results.
Because mobile users search for information quickly, they often use your title tag and meta description to determine whether to click on your listing.
Title tags
Title tags are the first thing your audience will see in search results. These tags tell your audience what your page covers.
These title tags serve as a preview of your page. If you want to drive more relevant mobile traffic to your website, you need to optimize your title tag.
A good title uses your keywords. Your keyword should appear at the beginning of the title tag to let your audience know that your listing is relevant to their search query. Your title tag should be descriptive and inform your audience about what they will find on your page.
Meta description
Your metadata description is a short advertisement that your audience will see after your title tag. It gives your audience more information about your listing.
The meta description gives your audience a preview of your page. It helps them determine if your page is relevant to their search query. Having a short and descriptive meta description will get more mobile users to click through to your website.
8. Create a separate mobile URL
When companies optimize for mobile, many of them create a different mobile URL. With a separate mobile URL, you create a parallel site for mobile users. It allows you to create a custom experience for people who visit your website via mobile devices.
The mobile URL is usually displayed as “m.website.com” or “website.com/mobile”. When users access your site via a mobile URL, they will see a version of your site that is optimized for mobile devices. This customization allows users to experience your website
9. Create mobile content
A great tip for mobile SEO is mobile content creation. When you create mobile content, you format it to provide a positive experience on mobile devices.
If you want to create mobile-friendly content, you should make it easy for users to navigate. For example, keeping your paragraphs to 2-3 sentences will make it easier for your audience to read or skim your article.
You’ll also want to add photos and videos to your content. It will keep your content interesting and offer engagement points for your audience. You’ll also want to add interactive elements like clickable buttons to make it easy for users to navigate your mobile site.
Get started optimizing for mobile SEO today
Mobile SEO is an integral part of growing your online business. If you want to help your business grow through SEO, you need to consider users searching for your business through mobile devices. A robust mobile SEO plan will help you reach potential customers who are interested in your business.
If you’re not sure how to get started with mobile SEO, our team of over 450 experts can help. With over a decade of experience, you can count on us to help you develop a mobile SEO strategy that will bring more mobile users to your business.
Want to learn how to optimize for mobile SEO? Contact us online or call us today at (408) 982-5851 to speak with a strategist about our SEO services.
