In today’s digital world, where almost everyone accesses the internet on the go, you cannot ignore mobile SEO. In fact, it should be a priority.
Optimising mobile SEO ensures your website operates well on devices such as tablets and smartphones. You must consider aspects such as design and content to make the most of your mobile performance.
Did you know you may need to use alternative keywords when optimising mobile SEO rather than desktop SEO?
Let’s take a closer look at what you need to do to optimise mobile SEO.
Why do I need to optimise mobile SEO?
If you still need convincing that mobile SEO is critical for business success, look at these facts:
- 60% of organic search visits are from mobile devices
- Desktop searches are decreasing
- Shoppers in stores use their mobiles to research products as they shop.
- Google first focuses on a site’s mobile version when indexing content.
How to Optimise Mobile SEO
Here are our top suggestions for ensuring your mobile site is configured to work well.
1. Choose your Configuration
You have three choices of configuration.
· Responsive Design
Responsive design is the most straightforward setup for most websites, allowing you to invoke changes and load content on desktop and mobile versions together. Your server will send the same HTML code, and CSS changes the rendering based on the device.
It is Google’s recommended design.
There are plenty of benefits, such as having a single URL for each page with less chance of errors. It is far less time-consuming, and there will be fewer page repetitions for Google to trawl.
· Dynamic Serving Method
Here, the URL stays the same, but different HTML is shown depending on the device, with the server providing different codes for each device type.
Dynamic sites carry the risk of users being shown the wrong page version, creating a poor UX.
· Creating Separate URLs
Using separate URLs for desktop and mobile pages can be hard to manage. Google is not a fan of this method, and there are too many opportunities for technical issues.
It requires canonical tags to show Google, which is the primary version of each page, and if you get this wrong, Google may register content as duplicates causing poor rankings.
2. Test Your Mobile Performance
You can check mobile optimisation on Google Search Console, where a ‘mobile usability’ tab sits in the sidebar.
Use the insights you see here to make appropriate changes.
Alternatively, use PageSpeed Insights to see how fast your mobile pages load. It uses core web vitals to check for performance, including:
- The time taken for content to load
- Time taken for the website to respond to clicks
- The amount of shift as banners and images load.
3. Create Mobile Friendly Content
You may be wondering what mobile-friendly content looks like. The central aspect to remember is that content looks longer on mobile devices, which can make it unreadable.
Consider using the following ideas:
- Short paragraphs
- Short Introductions
- Use blocks of white space on your page to break up text
- Keep pop-ups to a minimum
4. Organise with Structured Data
Because there is less space for content to be displayed, structured data will help Google to make sense of it. Creating rich snippets makes your content stand out and perform better on SERPs.
5. Optimise Keywords for Voice
Users are more likely to use voice when searching on mobile devices. It makes sense, therefore, to consider how voice search differs.
Typically, voice users will speak more informally than when they type, using a more conversational tone. For optimisation, you should use question-based long-tail keywords such as, “where can I buy…?”
It is worth checking out your competitors’ performances on mobile relating to various keywords for inspiration.
6. Consider Title Tags and Meta Descriptions for Mobile
Improving title tags and meta descriptions for mobile can maximise your CTR (click-through rate).
- Target one main keyword in titles and meta descriptions
- Make each page title unique
- Keep meta descriptions under 120 characters
- Summarise content in the meta description
- Include a CTA (Call to action)
7. Compare Desktop v Mobile Performance
Google Analytics is the best place to check out how your mobile site is doing compared to your desktop site.
Where a desktop page gets far more traffic than the equivalent mobile page, you may want to tweak the content to perform better on mobile devices using our previous tips.
Need help optimising your mobile SEO? Get in touch with us at SEO and Web, where our expert team can improve your CTR and drive more organic traffic your way.
