January 5, 2015
Mobile SEO
There is a huge gap between a business’ understanding of mobile searches and reality. You may be treating mobile search optimization exactly the same way as desktop SEO. If you hope to tap into mobile searches, then you are going about it the wrong way.
A Google Study provides vital data on why mobile search optimization matters.
– Over 81% of smartphones users access the internet. 77% of these searches take place at home or at work, even though there is a computer available.
– Another 17% of search occur on-the-go
– And, 2% occurs at the store
– 73% of mobile searches result in additional action like visiting the retailer’s website or store, calling the business or getting converted.
Search engines use a slightly different algorithm when giving a search result. So even though you may appear at the top result in a desktop search, it is not necessary that your link will come at the top in a mobile search.
Here’s why you haven’t been able to catch up to mobile search optimization.
Not Loading Quickly
A desktop website is heavy, takes time to download and does not fit appropriately on a mobile screen.
A website that is mobile optimized fits well on a mobile device screen of all sizes. More importantly, web pages that are small in size can be downloaded quickly. Mobile users don’t wait beyond 3 seconds for a website to load, hence small size matters for a quick load.
Not using the Power of Local Search
Local searches are even more important on the mobiles because search engines taps into GPS to give better localized results. Around 17% of searches are on-the-go and 2% in actual stores. These are users who are actually set to visit a restaurant or purchase a product. Many of these searches use Google Maps to find relevant results.
Your website needs to be geo-optimized to tap into local searches on mobiles.
Missed Tag Opportunities
Mobile users prefer using tags instead of long-tail keywords in their searches. The reason is two-fold- users want quick searches, and it is easier and quicker to type in tags than long-tailed keywords.
Apart from keyword optimization, ensure your web pages have meta-tags.
Terrible Mobile Site Architecture
To have a growing traffic rate, low bounce rate and a high SEO rank, you need to have an excellent mobile site architecture. Traffic rate, bounce rate and SEO are all interrelated. Have a low traffic rate (or a dwindling traffic rate) along with high bounce rate, and a search engine will assume that your content is not relevant.
Keeping in mind the various screen sizes, your mobile site must be well structure, have a clear and navigable hierarchy, and have visuals that fit.
UxBooth has very thorough guide to building an excellent mobile site architecture.
Not resized Call-to-action Button
The call-to-action button is vital to pushing your users to convert. It needs to be resized for mobiles so that it does not blatantly stand out and rather works in a suggestive manner.
These are just some of the points you should be focus on if want your website to catch up with mobile search optimization. Get started!
