Not long ago, search engine optimization was something that nobody even considered to be valuable. Today it is considered by nearly every company on a daily basis. This is because a single technological advancement, in this case, the World Wide Web, changed everything. It changed the way people view advertisements, and it opened up an entire new business economy. Now the next big thing is mobile viewers. We believe that mobile should also be considered a new and separate technology. If you want your company to last, new strategies will have to be formed which are made specifically for your mobile customers.
Many top companies report that over 30% and higher of their page views come from mobile viewers. Google even states that there are more searches on mobile than on desktop. This means that if you do not have a clear SEO strategy for reaching these customers, you could be losing out on a lot of potential dollars. There are a plethora of ideas floating around pertaining to mobile SEO strategies, but today we will focus on a few of the main mobile search engine optimization strategies that everybody tends to agree on.
1. Adjust site for the mobile platform: mobile is a completely different platform than computer-based browsing. Mobile visitors often do not have as much time to browse and are simply looking for a quick read to occupy a few minutes. The way these visitors search is different as well. You will notice more acronyms and abbreviations used during mobile searches; and overall shorter keywords as well. To help target the mobile audience specifically, many companies will create mobile only sites.
Through these mobile only sites they are able to uniquely target mobile customers with content that those customers will find interesting. It can also be easier to cater to the needs of the mobile audience if you have a site that will only be seen by those customers. A mobile version is a good idea for any company who sees a lot of traffic coming from mobile viewers.
Alternatively, responsive web design is a good solution as the mobile device does the work and automatically adjusts according to a device’s screen size and orientation. It switches between these options on-the-fly and there is no need to create a separate mobile website. In simple terms, a responsive Web design is one that “responds to” and resizes itself based on the device of the user.
A responsive web design approach is also the fastest way to go. Redirects required for a separate mobile site (m.domain.com) can be slow and in the world where seconds count for conversions you should consider avoiding redirects. Easy sharing: It’s not complicated to share a single URL in social media.
2. Think about the size difference: the setup of your mobile site should first consider the unique size restrictions. Simply scaling down a website will render your content illegible to many viewers. This is why we recommend developing a mobile-specific website where you can devote the majority of your space to your content.
3. Consider load times: most mobile viewers are just looking for a few minutes of entertainment so anything that distracts them can quickly lose their interest. If you have a lot of rich content on your home page it can cause horrendous load times for mobile users. If the page does not load within a second or two most of these visitors will find something else to catch their attention.
4. Keep your target audience in mind: don’t forget that mobile viewers browse content differently than those on the computer. While viewing on the computer you may read an interesting article, perhaps bookmark it for later, or maybe even tell a friend about it sometime. However, mobile viewers are always a click away from sharing your article on a variety of social media sites. This is why the majority of mobile content that you see is always entertaining and easily shareable. So be sure to include share buttons for all major social media websites.
5. Take advantage of the mobile factor: mobile viewers can quickly be converted to customers if you take the time to properly generate interest. Have you considered adding incentives for customers to interact with you? Some ideas are text-based promotions, phone competitions, or even a shout-out to top commenters. If you can get people to interact with your site you’ll be one step closer to adding them to your customer list.
In summary, you may have noticed one common denominator throughout all of these topics. This is to think of the customer first and cater to their unique needs. If you can continue to create interesting content that people enjoy and share you’ll begin to notice an increase in traffic. The majority of your mobile viewers are going to come from social media platforms where they have seen your content shared. After visiting your site once it becomes increasingly easy to garner more attention down the road. Bottom line: As mobile devices become more and more popular, failure to create a mobile SEO strategy and optimize your site for mobile will put you at a greater disadvantage to your competition.
Bonus:
Mobile Testing & SEO Tools:
- Google Mobile-Friendly Checker – Quick test allows you to gain insight into how Google views your mobile content and offers suggestions on how to improve any errors.
- Google SEO Test – Google has compiled this guide to help you understand how to configure your site for multiple devices, inform the search engines of your mobile presence, and help you avoid some common mistakes while implementing.
- Google Keyword Planner – This tool can present the historical statistics and traffic forecasts for your keywords and is often the first tool an SEO specialist uses. Also, it’s a great resource when planning what content your audience is primarily interested in.
- Google Speed Test – This tool can present the historical statistics and traffic forecasts for your keywords and is often the first tool an SEO specialist uses. Also, it’s a great resource when planning what content your audience is primarily interested in.
Which of these techniques do you use within your own mobile SEO strategies? Please comment below and let us know if you have any secret strategies of your own. Here we have only started to scratch the tip of the iceberg when it comes to mobile SEO.
