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Why Is Mobile SEO More Important Than It Ever Was?

Date published: February 13, 2020
Last updated: February 13, 2020

There's simply no denying the fact that we all are dependent on our mobile phones today. Mobile devices are everywhere and social media (coupled with mobile SEO) now plays a huge role in attracting new business.

  • Confused about something? The mobile phone comes to our rescue!
  • Want to use a search engine to find a nearby business online? Again the mobile phone — combined with local SEO — is the saving grace...and so on.

We still use desktop devices, of course, but we now depend on the internet and our mobile devices for our day-to-day needs. Isn't it somewhat obvious, then, what makes mobile SEO important?

The Rise of Mobile Devices...and Mobile SEO Optimization

In this regard, it's useful to understand the importance of mobile SEO. Mobile traffic now outpaces desktop search. You can't leave your desktop user behind, of course, but mobile SEO should be your primary focus.

Today you get maximum sales, traffic, leads, and conversions via mobile users scanning through your content. The rise of search engine optimization is an unavoidable fact because people are always on the go and things on their to-do list are being done on the go, typically on a mobile device.

The advantageous ranking of your content today largely depends on the mobile experience, leveraging local SEO, using social media as part of your digital marketing, and how well your website is optimized for mobile search.

Also, you have to keep mobile-first indexing in mind as this is an important part of mobile marketing. Consequently, mobile SEO is critically important. In this regard, you may need to consult with an SEO agency to make sure you are optimizing your content for mobile without leaving the desktop user behind. Otherwise, the user experience is likely to suffer and you're likely to lose the mobile user.

Listed below are some best practices for tweaking content for mobile SEO. As you consider investing in SEO services and building a mobile friendly site, keep in mind all the relevant factors that influence search engine optimization. These include the site's design, fast-loading content, user interface across mobile and desktop, and navigation. They all influence mobile SEO either directly or indirectly.

1. Prioritize page load speed.

In the age of fast internet speed, your website content cannot lag. Mobile users are notorious for demanding responsive design and a lightning-quick user experience. Your content must appear super fast on any device. If you aren't working on mobile optimization, your user experience is bound to suffer.

You must optimize images for mobile search, invest in responsive design for all your content, use the minimum amount of code, reduce the number of redirects, and use browser caching to its maximum effect. Of course, there are many more tasks that can increase page speed on a desktop and a mobile device and position your mobile site for search engine success.

2. Let the Google "spiders" crawl all over your website.

Blocking Google search spiders can have a disastrous effect on your website. In all likelihood, the ranking of your website will suffer badly, both for your desktop user and mobile visitors.

There are some readily-available tools you can use such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics. When used correctly, these technical SEO tools (and others) can help identify and understand whether the spiders are reaching the important parts of your site or not. This leaves the window for desktop and mobile optimization improvement wide open.

3. Pay attention to your search engine result page (SERP) display.

Mobile search engine optimization requires attention to detail. When you add a number of microdata (tags) such as Schema.org and structured data to your mobile site, search engines can interpret or read them more accurately.

By working toward a mobile first index, you will boost your desktop SEO as well. This represents a true win-win SEO strategy.

Google search can also display your page in SERPs in a better way by facilitating the concentration of the rich snippets beneath the title of the page.

4. Mobile optimization holds the key to increased traffic.

Ask your dev team to make your website mobile-friendly and desktop compliant. Outdated plugins such as Flash might not be useful. It's always better to avoid using too many plugins. Pop-ups need to be avoided as well.

Instead, HTML5 represents a much better and more useful choice for your mobile website. For touch screen navigation on a mobile device, designing for the fat finger is always better. This means that the buttons must not be too small...or too big. Otherwise, scrolling your mobile page becomes tedious.

Less screen space means you have to reduce the length of titles, URLs, and meta-descriptions for the mobile version. What looks great on desktop might transform itself into a jumbled mess on mobile. However, you cannot compromise overall message quality as you tailor text for mobile use.

5. Content upgrades and optimization are a neverending process.

Optimizing your content while keeping local search in mind is another important mobile SEO best practice. Start by standardizing your business name, address, phone number, the name of the city you are operating in, and the metadata of your site for mobile users.

Mobile first indexing combined with local SEO is sure to increase the impact of your search result. Invest in responsive design, accelerated mobile pages, and some solid social media support as part of your digital marketing strategy.

Launching a mobile site means little, of course, if you don't attract visitors. Your mobile friendly website needs to have support from a digital marketing plan. Should you decide to work with a SEO agency to help you get started, make sure your agreed-upon mobile SEO strategy provides for regular check-ups and fine-tuning.

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